At the time this appears in print, Marquis Ito may be in London. He has no intention of raising a loan there, or he would have visited it earlier, but ho has serious business in view all the same. He wants to know exactly what kind of backing Great Britain will offer to Japan in case of a sudden rupture between the latter country and Russia. He already knows things on this subject that would make sensational reading if given to the world, for at the time of the excitement over the Manchurian Question in April last he was Premier, and is generally understood to have come to some sort of understanding with England before going to the lengths he did on that occasion. "It is probable that during his recent hurried visit to England, our representative here, Sir Claude MacDonald, got full instructions how to act in case of trouble between Japan and Russia; and the Continentals here generally believe that these instructions also included orders to do all he possibly could to cause war between these two countries. However that may be, Marquis Ito seems to entertain a not unnatural wish to have a frank talk "as between man and man," in the Micawber phrase, with the head of the British Government on a question which is of vital interest to whatever may be the result, the situation will no doubt be highly dramatic. The aged and_ illustrious statesman of the Mikado whispering the secrets and high ambitions of his young and daring empire into the friendly car of King Euward's Prime Minister. and both laying plans that may in the vent: shake the verid and perma-nantly cripple tie power of the Czar on the Pacific—the mere contemplation of the tableau makes me foresee the heights of prophetic and omniscient enthusiasm to which some journals and some foreign correspondents will assuredly rise!
Tokio, 21st December.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.