3rd November.
NotwITHsTANDING the reassuring announcements that have been mad many times "t home, to the effect that the negotiations at Tokio are going on satisfactorily, and that there is every reason to think that Japan and Russia will agree before long on a satisfactory compromise, there is very little real belief among those in Japanand China who have followed the course of events carefully that war will be averted, Japan, at any rate, will not budge an inch from her insistence that Russia shall carry out her solemn promises to evacuate Manchuria and do nothing to imped> the maintenance there of the "Open Door." There must be war, then, if Russia does not give way; and one of Russia's answers to that gestion comes in the telegram which we published yesterday morning: "Russia is reoccupying the province of Fengtien;" ie, she southernmost of the three Manchurian provinces, and that of which Moukden is the capital, In regard to this re-occupation of Fengtien we may quote a paragraph which appeared recently in a Japanese vernacular paper: "A fresh force has also been stationed in North Manchuria, and preparations are now being completed for war, she (Russia) being only prevented by the floods now raging in South Manchuria from effecting occupation." Apart from the Broparations for war which Japan and Russia have been carrying on steadily foursome months, and as to which it might be that they are merely -y, other indications of precariousness of the situation are noticeable from time to time. One of these is the proposed removal of the Viceregal seat of government from Port Arthur to Vladivostock. The Vladivostock branch of the Siberian railway is much less likely to be interrupted by war than the Port Arthur branch, for the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria runs a great risk of damage at the hands of Japanese and Chinese, presuming, as seems not altogether Improbab that the Chinese take the Japanese side in the conflict, if 1t comes. The coming military maneuvres near Himeji are enabling the Japanese to collect an army where it can be readily embarked, if necessary; and they "have also enabled this to be done without causing unnecessary excitement. The Japanese have three Army Divisions now ready "to the last button of their gaiters,'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.