But the conquest of Saghalien marked the last of actual warfare between Japan and Russia. President Roosevelt had sent an identical note to Japan and Russia on June 8, calling upon each, in the name of humanity, to meet to discuss terms of peace and the whole Saghalien campaign had gone on while, following this request, diplomatic machinery had been slowly at work preparing the way for the peace conference. The rest of the story of the Japan-Russia War has to do with the events which finally called permanent truce to the long struggle and caused a million fighting men and their auxiliaries to turn their faces from the rugged plains of Manchuria, where thousands on thousands had given their lives for their Emperors and their Fatherlands. [Sidenote: Preparing for Peace Parleys] Russia's acceptance of the President's invitation reached Washington on June 12, two days after Japan had announced her assent. A ripple was caused by difficulty in choosing a place for the meeting. Russia preferred an European capital. Japan would not consent to any that could be named. Russia ultimately yielded the point, and on June 15, with the consent of both of the belligerents, Washington was named, and a day within the first ten days of August was accepted for the assembling of the envoys. The Czar named Sergius Witte, greatest statesman of the Empire, to head the peace delegation, with Baron Rosen, Russian ambassador at Washington, as his associate. The Mikado named Baron Komura as chief of the Japanese delegation, and as his associate, Mr. Takahira, Japanese Minister to the United States. Accompanying each was a suite of a dozen secretarys, legal and military experts and interpreters. On July 11, the President named Portsmouth, N. H., Navy Yard as the actual place of meeting. It was feared that Washington, under the torrid conditions usually prevailing there in mid-summer, would prove a too uncomfortable place for the guests of the nation to spend the weeks that must necessarily be consumed in the negotiations. The Japanese envoys and their suite reached New York on July 25. M. Witte, the chief Russian envoy, arrived in New York with his suite on August 2, and was joined by Baron Rosen, his associate. Both the Japanese and the Russian delegations were informally presented to the President at his summer home at Oyster Bay, N. Y., prior to the formal reception of the two peace missions which took place on the President's yacht, the Mayflower, in Oyster Bay on August 5. The President, in a toast to which no reply was given, expressed the hope that a "just and lasting peace" might be arranged. The envoys and their suites were conveyed in warships to Portsmouth, reaching that city on August 7. The envoys were formally welcomed by United States officials and the Governor of the State of New Hampshire. The Hotel Wentworth, on an island off the mainland was made their place of residence. The newly constructed general stores building in the Navy Yard, which had been