It was, then, not simply with a nation possessing a powerful army but with veritably a nation in arms that Russia had to contend when the war was begun in February 1904, and no more definite, straightforward history of that mighty contest has been given to the world than the brief account of its origin, progress, and conclusion which, according to a journal published in the Far East, fell from Marshal Yamagata’s own lips not long ago. Referring to the events of the spring of 1904, he said:— “Russian aggression in the Far East became so notorious, and took on such serious dimensions after Russia obtained the lease of Port Arthur and Talienwan that it was felt that a conflict of the interests of Japan and Russia was imminent. I considered most carefully measures to counteract this aggression, and took counsel with all my colleagues and friends. We came to the decision to forestall Russia in Korea, as the historical and geographical relations of Korea with our Empire demanded that we should have the peninsula in our power, rather than it should fall into that of Russia. To attain this object we decided to construct the Seoul-Fusan railway, and did not neglect to elaborate any other necessary measures, as circumstances required, to oppose Russia. In the meantime Russia steadily augmented her naval strength in the Far East, and by about March 1903 her naval force here was almost equal to our own. Russia failed to fulfil her promise to evacuate Manchuria, and by steadily reinforcing her army and navy her designs came to be generally acknowledged. The Japanese Government, therefore, decided to protest against these designs, and entered upon negotiations in July 1903, with a view to arriving at an arrangement diplomatically. These negotiations proved very difficult, and towards the end of November the situation became desperate. By this time we were determined that Korea should under no circumstances be left in the hands of Russia. Frankly I may say that we were not confident of defeating Russia, for she was considered to be one of the greatest powers of the world. We had some hope, however, in our navy. The naval forces of the two countries were almost equally balanced, but fortunately our navy had had experience in fighting in the past ten years, while Russia had had none. As to the strength of the army, there was great disparity, the Russians having 4,000,000 men and Japan only 500,000. There was certainly a limit in the strength of the army that could be sent by Russia’s one line of railway, but the Russian equipment in arms was in no way inferior, even if it was not superior, to that of our army, and the education of the officers was almost equal. We had, therefore, no advantage over the Russian army, with the exception, as we thought, of the skill of our troops