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In this ATL, France, Austria and Germany choose to more strongly support Russia in their position at Port Arthur as described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Intervention In July 1903 Japan presents its demands to Russia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War#Pre-war_negotiations 2nd Dec 1903, the Russian battleship Tsesarevich arrives at Port Arthur to join the Pacific Fleet.

In this timeline, showing their annoyance with Britain's recent alliance with Japan; France, Germany and Austria-Hungary dispatch naval forces they originally sent in OTL to partake in the Boxer Rebellion, to Port Arthur. Thus at the end of January 1904, a few weeks before the OTL battle of Port Arthur, there are the following ships at Port Arthur:

Russian
  • Battleships Petropavlovsk, Sevastopol, Peresvet, Pobeda, Poltava, Tsesarevich, and Retvizan
  • Armored cruiser Bayan
  • Protected cruisers Pallada, Diana, Askold, Novik, and Boyarin

German
  • Battleships Brandenburg, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, Weissenburg, Wörth
  • Protected cruisers Kaiserin Augusta, Hertha, and Hansa

Austria-Hungary
  • Armoured cruiser Kaiserin Augusta
  • Protected cruisers Hertha, and Hansa

France
  • Armoured cruiser Amiral Charner
  • Protected cruisers Jean Bart, Descartes and Pascal

Meanwhile France has sent a battle squadron to Saigon just in case.

Now what does Japan do? First of all, Japan has been informed of the French, German and KwK arrivals. What does Britain do?
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