ABSTRACT
The attitude which the German Government adopted was that they had equal rights with Britain in the Yangtze Basin and special rights in Shantung. In the latter part of May 1898 Britain was confronted with new complications in the Yangtze Valley which arose out of the activities there of other Powers than Germany. Having failed to win Germany's approval of the Yangtze as a British sphere, she next attempted to procure that of China herself. The Chinese Government were indecisive, and Britain again failed to secure for herself what each of the other Great Powers already possessed—a sphere in China. Having failed to prevent China from granting the Peking-Hankow Railway to the Russian-French-Belgian group, Britain attempted to obtain another kind of guarantee for her interests in the Yangtze region. The China Association was asking its Government to insist upon a position in the Yangtze similar to that of Germany in Shantung and Russia in Manchuria.
