22nd July.
Mr. Jack London has returned home from the wars—in the course of which he lost a aut had other breathless nees In the intervals of wri pls for fair Americans and interviewers the—novel jowrnatise has been propounding his opinions as to the likely outenme. me," he said to an inerviewrr, the is like a fight between a light, quick, ngil punchy little pugilist. pitied against big pugilist. The little felow yets in many body-blows, succeeding ench other with rapidity to startle the big fellow, Int the larier generally has a blow in reserve up his sleeve which proves fatal to his "ntagonist in the long run Tht, to my mind, is the situation in the Far East. Supposing the Japmmse do take Port Arthur and drive the Russians from the Liaotung peninsula, or even Manchuria itself, Jabin must of necessity, extend her line fa a long, thin formation to Siber almost, to guard its conquered ferriter Thus far Japan has been the aggressor, and has had the advantage. Let her once be on the defensive and the situa tim The question of the correspondent still yexes everyone save the imperturbal Japanese Government. Even the "J Gazette," now that it has been fined, has joined in the chorus of prot-st. Three months ago some of the more hopeful correspondents were stil trying to view the matter philosophically and lightly. 'The last mail brought. the follow: home se to the "Standard" by its presentative at Tokio "Tu Japan you must take the advice of St. Paul, and follow after patience. No country teaches the lesson so thoroughly. For' several weeks we fave been lenrving it, and now we have attained to the pre-eminence of Job. I would like to write the story of these months in which the War Correspondents of five nations have struggled like fish in a net.
might. bs instructive, but not 1g. There appeared on the notice he hotel in Tokio aa advertisement an weekly paper Uhat boasts services of Lwelve met front. It was a map of the Far dotted with unfamiliar names strings gripped by a single hand in New York. "Afas, for the Editor's dream They were in Tokio, these frilhful twelve, like Timothy, following after pitieuce instead of after armies. The patience of hope gave place to the patience of despair, and we had. promise of reeomponse. Captain Tanaka, aide-de-camp to anon Kodama, wrote to me these words of comfort:—' The men of great patience will, I think, be crowned with an invaluable reward blessing by Heaven!" to doubt whether T should live to wear at crown when the order came to march.
ie politeness of the Japanese is prover-pial. It is erystalfised in their language, which is full of honan We left. Tokio with instructions to juin a transport at Moji, and were warned that we must bring beds and food. Exper'ence has taught us to doubt the rigour of such comm ind, and we crossed over to Moji to learn the truth. dur transport Ixy in the Straits, and the captain receival us with the customary apology. To our inquiry whether it was necessary to bring food, he answered, with a meaning smile and a no'e of Sercasm in the words, " Well, think we can manage to feed you for six daya" We broached the beds with caution, and were invited to inspect our cabins. After that we. could find only one fault—that we had the whole ship to ourselves, and ha-l no chance of studying life on a Japanese transport Tu fact, the Suminoye Maru was a first-class il-boat, and we were first-class passen-
Meantime if journalism suffers in some ways it gains in others. Already we have' the new daily German paper at Tientsin, and now there is 10 be a new daily English paper at Seoul.
Dalny has not afforded much of interest while the Japanese ace prepwing for their larger task at Port Arthur, but it interesting t" learn that ordos tically been restored there pretty much as they were Japanese flag has replaced the Russian on the high buildings. S-ven godow.s full of ice were discovered by the victors, and the find was a most welcome one. ' Tne water supply has been put in order again; it was cut by the r. trea"ng Rassians The L and ©, Express" marises a long letter by Investor in the "Times." The writer says he has had occasion during a period extending over the last: twenty-five years to make a somewhat special study of the financial and economic tion in "Russia. An result he cannot but feel the greatest surprise at the mvuner in which, in connection with the Russo-Japanese war, it ise instantly assumed that the resources of Raassia are considerable; the adjective "endless" is applied as the most practicd way of summarising the position he goes through, and concludes that the only resources of importance that I know of lie in the peckets of French and German investors,.. One more point T must)
iun before coneludi thatis, that] by Russia, as is well-known, is in a state of tute p li tical unrest, and sooner or later a revolution of the' Jxcobin order must convu'se the tottering fabric. The revolutionary feeling is due to the natural objection of the Russian t" military service and ion, and, should the revolt last thing that those who may rise to the head of affairs would venture to propose is to tax te poasimtry lo make payments to the foreigner."
The distressful story is kept up by the Qdessx correspondent "f the lealiog journ. In a ree ut letter he wrote "Reports from most of the manufactur-areas in Russia state that output is be-limited, factories are steuj main at work on bale ving di orders. In consequence of the war and the Japanese comment of the Pacific, the trade of the leading Black Sea ports' with the Far East by sen has been temporarily abindonet by the Russau flag. The Russian shipping lines which came into existence as a result of the Flag law" of 1901 are now completely idle so far as trade with Viadivostock, Shanghai, and ~ingapore is concerned. "In the terms of that extraordinary law, which was sponsored in the main by the Grand Duke Alexan. der Mikhailoviteh, Vladivostock, 36 days by steamer of
into a Russian *coisting trade" port. As ural and foreseen result of the'"nnihilation of foreign competition several new Russian sipping services were mediately ixangurated between Russian home ports, principally Blick Sea ports, and the Far Kast. 'The Rassian tea imp trade with China is especially suffering very seriously in consequence of the on-forced idleness of the Vo'untecr Fleet. Russia's shipping trade with thy Far East was her only foreign' shipping trade of any magnitude, and its present paralysis constitutes not the least serious blow dealt to Russian trade by the present war."
On the other hand, tha ' Morning Post," taking " broad view of what is going on, deals with the consequences of The Rise of Japan." The journal remarks that the first consequence mus: be a change in the strategical situation in the Pacific, "Japan is about to be in that ocean one of the two great naval Powers, the other being the United States. So long as these two Powers remain on good terms with one another, which we imagine may be for many years, the Pucitic will deserve its name, for against, the will of these two Powers, with which Great Britain will probably be associated, other nation, either Europea or Avintic, can do anything. This consideration ought have the greatest weight in British policy, fur it carries with it the corollary that the British Government should devote very great attention, and, if ne-d be, incur considerable expense in cultivating among our people a knowledge of Japan, and of her people. Government should found in the British Universities a number of professorships and lectureships on the language and history of Japan."
Replying to Me, Trevelyan, whic asked in the House st Commons' whether he could vive the figures of the expenditure upon the Japrnese army for each of the lust five years, and the cost por head of the popula: ion compared with Greit Britain and the lewiing European nations, Mr. Arnold-Forster said: The Japanese Budget, Estimates, as published for the years named follow: £5,553,025; 1900-1901, £5,295, 1902, £4,955,685; 1903-1903, £4,680,510 198-19 4, £4,217,196. With regard to the cost per heyd as compare with other nations it is, as previously stated in answer to questions of " similar natur impossible to arrive, fx purposes of con parison, at any reliable conclusion as to the actual mil tary expenditure incurred the various foreign Powers.
'A fellow-feeling with the foreign war correspondents has inspired the Japanese Presamen of Tokio to send a deputation to the Military General Staff, to. represent the hard ease of the correspondents and to suggest solve mitigation of their lot, even at ths expense ut the Japanese journals, The spontaneous ant generous "act has inow shir " lotter of thanks, published in the Tokio papers and signed by the followin:—Bennet Burleizh, Daily Telegraph, Loi don; George Lynch, D-ily Chronicle, Loadon; Guy H. Senk, New York G obo} Perey Fisher, Times, London; Franklin Clarkin, New York Evening Post; Whiting, London Graphic; W. H. Brill, Reuter's Telegram Eu.; J. Gordon Smith, Morning Post, London; Capt. Lionel James Times' Special" Corresponden Richard Harding Davis, Collier's Weekly Sydney by London Daily Mull; Melton Prior, Illustrated Londoa_ New Joseph Rosenthal, Sphere, London Martin Egan, Assuciated Press; John Fox, Jr., Seribner's Magazine. A separate letter of thanks was written by Mr. F. L. Pratt representing the Sydney Herald and Melbourne Age.
Phere appear in the Japan papers two pathetic letters written in connection with the death of Lieut. Sergeff, who commanded the illfared destroyer Stregustchi,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.