A GERMAN telegram from Berlin published by us yesterday morning says: "The sensational telegrams English and Russian newspapers uiblished occasionally in some
about events and evolutions in the Far East are nowhere taken seriously any longer." The exact meaning of such a general statement as this it is difficult to realise; if it only means what it says, that sensational telegrams are not taken seriously, the j cable might as well have been saved money spent on its transmission
if it means, as no doubt it does, that the telegrams which indicate that matters are still in a critical condition between Russia and Japan are nowhere taken seriously, we can only say that those who have persuaded themselves to regard these latter telegrams with indifference are living in a Fools' Paradise.
No intelligent person can read the other telegrams on the Crisis that we published yesterday morning—our special telegram from Tokio, and those sent out by Reuter giving the situation as the Russian Foreign Office wishes Europe to believe it 1is—without coming to the conclusion that a peaceful solution of the Russo-Japanese negotiations is by no means a certainty. A fusion or even a temporary coalition between the Constitutioralists (Seiyukai) and the Progressists in the Japanese Diet means, that the strongest parties in the Diet, which meets, it must be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.