In a recent article under this heading, we gave briefly some indications that war between Japan and Russia is imminent, and despite the very strict censorship of the Press and of the telegraphs that is bein; exercised in Japan, enough has leake through to show that every moment of Russia's delay in answering Japan's last note is being utilised to bring Japan's preparations up to the point when she will be able to strike quickly and hard. The extraordinary efforts that are being made to provide the necessary funds without borrowing money abroad are a very strong indication of Japan's determination to bring Russia to a settlement by force, the resources of diplomacy having been practically exi usted. It was only two days ago that the first note of despair was sounded from St. Petersburg, which has hitherto professed to believe that 3|a pacific solution of the difficulty was eventually certain: The tele-S;|gram that we printed yesterday morning told us despairingly that "the efforts of diplomacy are largely nullified by the mutual distrust of Russia aod Japan, each insisting on guarantees, Russia demanding that the south coast -of Corea shall not be fortified, while Japan refuses to accept a mere general assurance regarding Chinese sovereignty in Manchuria or Japanese paramountcy in Corea." It is no doubt a salve to Russia's honour to be'able to say that she cannot trust Japan, after Japan had implied that she could not rely on the bare word of Russia; but the impartial observer must admit that Japan has been on the whole remarkably conscientious in the observation of her engagements, and it is impossible for any student of history to say the same for Russia, the path of whose expansion is strewn with the remains of broken promises as the th of the British expedition in somaliland is strewn with. the skeletons of camels, Granting as we readily do that the Czar himself.is.in favour of a pacific solution of -the trouble, and that he is even willing that China shall resume effective sovereignty over Manchuria, and that he has-persuaded a majority of' his Ministers to accept his decision, Japan cannot with any prudence assume that the war party at St. Petersburg will not recover its ascendency in a year or even less, The anxiety and expense that she has incurred in the past year, she cannot afford to throw away without guarantees that the present situation will not recur within a generation, and these guarantees even the Czar does not seem able to provide. She is perfectly right not. to be daunted by those who are always warning her of Russia's magnitude and her illimitable resources, Where would the British empire be now if the statesmen..of the little isle sob in the silver sea to the west of the continent of Europe had listened. to similar warpings in past centuries? Those who fear that Japan will rush to her doom.if she insists to the bitter end in her struggle with the Russian Goliath, forget that in the first-place she knows that England and the United: States will not allow her to be crushed or, be beaten down to the rank of a second-rate Power, while if she can check the advance of Russia for only twenty years, that will give China time to make herself, with Japan's aid, so formidable that Russia will not dare to overstep the boundaries that' will be assigned her if Japan is successfal now, The advocates, of peace at any price are fond of urging that when we and others state the facts as they appear to us, and do not attempt to disguise the provocation that Japan and China.have, received, we "want war," and that. the question is settled if we are collec "disappointed war prophets." want peace, but there can be no
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.