By the Treaty of Portsmouth the Russian Government not only definitely relinquished all the political interests she had previously claimed to possess in Korea, but also recognized in all important particulars the rights acquired in the same country by Japan through the Conventions of February and August, 1904. Article Second of the Treaty stipulates: “The Imperial Russian Government, acknowledging that Japan possesses in Korea paramount political, military and economical interests, engages neither to obstruct nor interfere with the measures of guidance, protection and control which the Imperial Government of Japan may find it necessary to take in Korea.” Thus did the war with Russia, which was fought over the relations between Japan and Korea as an issue of supreme importance, terminate the second main period in the history of these relations. The Chino-Japan war removed forever that foreign influence which had continued through centuries, not only to prevent the immediate realization of a true national independence on the part of Korea, but also to unfit the Korean Government to maintain such independence when conferred upon it as the gift of another nation. The Russo-Japanese war terminated the attempt of a more powerful foreign nation to supersede the controlling influence of Japan in Korea. At the same time it gave a convincing further demonstration of Korea’s inherent and hopeless inability to control herself, under any existing conditions of her government or of her system of civilization. Thus the provisions for a Japanese Protectorate, which shall secure for both nations the largest possible measure of good, offered to the Marquis Ito his difficult problem as Imperial Commissioner to Korea in November, 1905. CHAPTER XI THE COMPACT