"The High Contracting Parties agree that neither of them will, without consulting the other, enter into separate arrangements with another power to the prejudice of the interests above described. ARTICLE V. "Whenever, in the opinion of either Great Britain or Japan, the above-mentioned interests are in jeopardy, the two governments will communicate with one another fully and frankly. ARTICLE VI. "The present agreement shall come into effect immediately after the date of its signature, and remain in force for five years from that date. "In case neither of the High Contracting Parties should have notified twelve months before the expiration of the said five years the intention of terminating it, it shall remain binding until the expiration of one year from the day on which either of the High Contracting Parties shall have denounced it. But if, when the date fixed for its expiration arrives, either ally is actually engaged in war, the alliance shall, _ipso facto_, continue until peace is concluded." To the Anglo-Japanese agreement Russia and her ally France retorted in the following declaration of March 16: "The allied Russo-French Governments are wholly pleased to discern that the Anglo-Japanese convention supports the essential principles which, according to the reiterated statement of France and Russia, constituted and still constitute the foundation of their policy. Both governments believe that the support of these principles is also a guarantee of the interests of the Far East. They are compelled, however, not to lose from view the possibly inimical action of other powers, or a repetition of disorders in China, possibly impairing China's integrity and free development, to the detriment of their reciprocal interests. They therefore reserve to themselves the right to take measures to defend these interests."