If Russia wills it so, and is prepared to accept conditions, it seems possible that the actual Japanese invasion will terminate at Harbin, and that Japan will establish herself there, and hold a large force in readiness for emergencies, possibly for a further advance at some future time. The potentialities of such a military situation will be enormous. Assuming that Japan will halt at the second crossing of the Sungari river, she will be in possession of the Fengtien and Kirin provinces, the two most densely populated territories of Manchuria, the richest in mineral and agricultural wealth, and the better part of the Chinese Empire occupied by Russia since the Boxer rising. She will command absolutely the railway approach to Port Arthur, Dalny, Vladivostok, and the Ussuri lines. Japan’s ambition extends somewhat further. The territory west of Harbin between the Sungari River and Tsitsikar is a high plain, well suited to grazing but of no immediate agricultural value. It has no attractions for the Japanese The land to the east of Harbin is better from the agriculturist’s point of view. The Ussuri Province of Eastern Siberia is a fertile, fairly settled and partly cultivated territory rich in promise. It is well wooded, possesses large timber, and has coal, iron, silver, and other valuable mineral deposits. The deep inlets of its shores, from Possiet northwards to the Amur river, are like Norwegian fiords, and the seas teem with fish and that marine vegetable life from which much of the food supply of Japan and Northern China is drawn. The coast fisheries are of the first importance to the welfare of both Japan and Korea. Japan wishes, and will attempt to obtain, the freedom of these waters. In order to prevent Russia from reimposing the taxes she has levied on the fisheries and restricting the rights of Korean and Japanese fishermen, or excluding them from earning their livelihood on the littoral of the Primorski province, Japan will dominate the Ussuri Province, if not annex it, or restore it to the Chinese empire from which it was taken a generation ago.