Moreover, on the last day of March, the fiftieth anniversary of Commodore Perry’s treaty with Japan, a memorable meeting to celebrate the event was held in the Y. M. C. A. Hall, Tōkyō. It was attended by a large number of both Japanese and foreigners, and, after listening to eloquent speeches, unanimously adopted a resolution to raise a Perry Memorial Relief Fund for the destitute families of Japanese soldiers and sailors. The subscription of over 60,000 _yen_ on the spot has since been increased to about 100,000 _yen_. The events off Port Arthur were colored still more tragically on April 13, when the Russian flagship “Petropavlovsk” of Admiral Makaroff was sunk, and almost all on board, including the admiral and the famous painter Verestchagin, perished. In May, the Japanese suffered their first heavy losses in the sinking of the “Hatsuse” and the “Yoshino.” In April the Russian Vladivostok squadron had taken the offensive and sunk a Japanese transport with a few troops on board. After that it made occasional sorties toward the Korean Straits in the hope of creating a diversion from Port Arthur, and in one instance sunk the “Hitachi Maru” with a large number of Japanese troops on board. Moreover, in July this squadron succeeded in getting through the Tsugaru Straits to the eastern coast of Japan, where it committed depredations, even just off the entrance of Tōkyō Bay. But later it was met in the Korean Straits by Admiral Kamimura’s squadron and defeated with the loss of the “Rurik.” By the early part of August the army investing Port Arthur had made such progress, in spite of severe opposition, that it became extremely dangerous for the Russian fleet to remain there longer. Therefore, on August 10, they made a sortie with the intention of escaping to Vladivostok. But Admiral Togo was not to be caught napping, and engaged in battle with the squadron. A few vessels, badly damaged, regained Port Arthur; others, some of which were severely injured, escaped to neutral ports, where they had to be dismantled; the “Novik” eluded its pursuers for a short time, but was finally overtaken and sunk in Korsakoff Harbor, Sakhalin. On August 23 began the great battle of Liaoyang, which continued for over a week, and deserves to go down on the pages of history as one of the severest, bloodiest, and probably most decisive battles ever fought. It was only by the most tremendous exertions that General Kuropatkin was enabled to save his army from having its retreat cut off by the flanking movement of Kuroki, while Oku and Nodzu were pounding away from other directions.