As day as succeeded day the situation has. grown more and more {ense, public opinion in both coun-{tles has become more and more {nilamed, and if there Is any way of honourably drawing back from the Due of the abyss that now looms it cannot be seen by the eye of the layman and neutral observer. The forces set in' motion by those. first, few rifle shots have roached-a point where it seems inevitable that blood, much blood at that, will have to flow ere sanity can be restored, Both Sides. in s0 fat as public and military opinion go, have worked themselves Up into a frenzy that can be exorcised only by this old-fashioned method of each killing thousands of the other's men, "Your correspondent devoutly hopes that he Is entirely wrong. and wil, be only too glad to join the ranks: of the false prophets if but the opportunity is afforded him, but watehfag and' sensing the pulse of opinion here, both official and mass, he can record no other prophesy.
'Japan is convinced that (unomcial) war is' Inevitable, That conviction extends from the most highly placed Sapanese tothe man in the street, There are, of course, a few excep: tions, but they are so few as to be negligible. The only place" where Optimism can be found to-day is, curiously enough, in the diplomatic corps, but even there it isnot unanimous, How such optimism was achieved by those supposed to be en rapport with all things Japanese Unfathomable, nor is it possible detect upon what it is based.
'No intelligent Japanese to whom 1 have (alked but Is seriously concern but feels that major conflicts ow become unavoidable, but feels That the Empire faces fis gravest risis since' 1904. andthe. outbreak of the "Russo-Japanese War- No newsboy, house. servant, hotel bel boy. petly merchant or other of the many' facets that make up' the com Posite "man in the street" but voices the same conclusion, although he has reached it more by" a. process of Intuition and feeling rather than of {Informed reasoning. It is nonetheless strong and powerful for' that.
'The manner in which' the nation has moved as a unit, has been welded Into'a single mind, since the Sunday morning "of "July 11 is amazingly Temarkable. Tt was on that Sunday morning that the North China situ {ion for the frst time' assumed a really serious aspect in the eyes of Japan. "All day ong the" bells of newsboys selling "extras" were to be heard, and the general public became thoroughly aroused, The Cabinet met urgent session, "and the Prince: Premier departed' immediately there after for the seaside palace at Hayama' where "His Majesty. was staying. only to hasten back to Tokyo himself the next day.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.