This was the case with us. Between the battle of Mukden and the end of the war our army almost doubled in numbers, had taken up a strong position, and was quite ready to advance. The strength of the Japanese, on the other hand, was exhausted (they were reduced to filling up their ranks with their 1906 recruits), and many things pointed to a weakening of their spirit. As Japan was pre-eminently a naval Power, our principal operations should have been on the sea; and had we destroyed the enemy’s fleet, there would have been no fighting on Chinese territory. As I have already pointed out, our fleet scarcely assisted the army at all; for while taking shelter in Port Arthur, it did not attempt to prevent the enemy’s disembarkation. Three Japanese armies—those of Oku, Nodzu, and Nogi—landed unhindered on the Liao-tung Peninsula; the forces of Oku and Nogi actually landed close to where our squadron was lying. Though we possessed an excellent base at Vladivostok, our main fleet was collected at Port Arthur—in a naval sense a very inferior place, for it possessed no docks nor workshops, and no protection for the inner basin. As regards our naval strength, I am unable to refer to official figures, for I write from the country,[77] but I quote from an article published in the _Ruski Viestnik_ in 1905 by M. Burun, as much of what he says agrees with what I had previously known. Our fleet began to increase after the Chino-Japanese War, the naval estimates reaching £11,200,000 in 1904. At the outbreak of hostilities it consisted of 28 sea-going and 14 coast-defence battleships, 15 sea-going gunboats, 39 cruisers, 9 ocean-going destroyers, 133 smaller destroyers, and 132 auxiliary vessels of less importance. Between 1881 and 1904 we had spent £130,000,000 in the creation of this fleet. The naval estimates of the two nations for the years preceding the war were, in millions of pounds: 1899. 1900. 1901. 1902. 1903. Russia 9 9·6 10·8 11·2 12 Japan 6 4·5 4·1 3·2 3·2 The Japanese fleet consisted of: Sea-going battleships 6 Coast-defence battleships 2 Armoured cruisers 11 Unarmoured cruisers 14 Destroyers 50 Gunboats 17 At the commencement of war our Pacific Ocean Squadron consisted of: Sea-going battleships 7 Large cruisers (of which only four were armoured) 9 Small cruisers and minor ships 4 Destroyers 42