“An overwhelming impression has been produced throughout the army by the news which has reached us from home that many poor-spirited people are trying to bring about an early peace. It is forgotten that a peace made before victory has been won cannot be honourable, and will not therefore be permanent. Never has our army been so strong and so ready for serious battle as now. Victory is nearer than seems likely to those at a distance. The troops have great belief in the new Commander-in-Chief;[60] they are assured of everything necessary to their wants, and their health is excellent. We would welcome news of the enemy’s advance, and are ready to move against them, when ordered to, with full faith in our strength. The troops have become war-seasoned. Even those units which were for various reasons not as steady as they should have been in the early fights are now thoroughly reliable. Numbers of wounded officers and men are hastening to rejoin, though not completely convalescent. Though we have lost the fleet, the army remains to us, and, I repeat, it is more powerful than it ever was before. Our position is altogether stronger and, tactically, better placed than those we held at Liao-yang or Mukden, for the Japanese do not envelop us in the same way. Though their forces have also been growing in numbers, there are many indications that their strength is on the wane: their ranks are being filled with men who formerly would not have been accepted, and the whole spirit of the army has undergone a change. More men allow themselves to be taken prisoners than before; their artillery and cavalry are weaker than ours, and they are short of gun ammunition. Letters from Japan, which we have found on the men, show that a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the war is growing among the people, for prices have gone up, and they are enduring great privations. These are the conditions under which I to-day read in letters from Moscow that on June 7 the Town Council discussed the advisability of inviting the representatives of the people to consider the question of putting an end to the war. Last February, on my departure for the front, you, in the name of all the representatives of Moscow, bade me farewell with words full of courage and of faith in the might of Russia. I therefore consider it my duty to send this letter to you. If the Muscovites do not feel as able as before to send their worthiest sons to us to help us overcome the foe, let them at least not prevent us from doing our duty in Manchuria. “Although there is nothing of a secret nature in this letter, its publication in the Press over my signature is very undesirable.” In reply, Prince Trubetski wrote to me on June 14 as follows: