It will be seen from this note that Japan made several important concessions. These naturally fall under three classes: concessions made to an expressed wish of Russia; those in which desires of Russia were changed from a one-sided into a reciprocal form; and those made voluntarily on the part of Japan. To the first class belongs the free passage of the Korean Straits (Article 5), while the neutralization of territory on both sides of the northern frontier (Article 6), and the mutual declaration that Korea was beyond the sphere of the “special” interests of Russia, and Manchuria of Japan (Article 7), may be said to fall under the second class. Purely voluntary concessions may be said to consist of the tenth Article regarding the Eastern Chinese and Korean Railways meeting on the Yalu, and a part of the eighth Article, in which the “special” interests—not necessarily in the railway work alone, as in the first Japanese note—of Russia in Manchuria were unequivocally recognized. Other Articles are largely identical with those of the first note, except the new ninth Article, which embodied the matter-of-fact principle that the treaty rights of Russia in Korea, and of Japan in Manchuria, should be mutually respected. Taken as a whole—with the only exception regarding the preponderating interests of Japan in Korea, and the natural wishes of Japan arising from this peculiar situation, the former of which had been wholly,[632] and the latter partially,[633] recognized by Russia—the prevailing characteristic of the second Japanese note may be said to be its reciprocal nature. The special interests of Russia[634] in Manchuria counterbalanced the preponderant interests of Japan in Korea,[635] and each other’s right to take necessary measures to protect those interests was recognized.[636] At the same time, Manchuria was declared as far beyond the sphere of Japanese special interests as was Korea of the Russian,[637] while, on the other hand, the treaty rights of Russia in Korea, and of Japan in Manchuria, were to be respected as a matter of course.[638] If Russia was requested not to impede the economic activity of the Japanese in Korea,[639] Japan also agreed not to fortify the Korean coast.[640] The case of the neutral zone[641] need not be repeated. In spite, however, of the reciprocal nature of the note, it is unnecessary to say, so long as the control of the Eastern policy of Russia remained in the same hands as before, she could hardly be expected to acquiesce in the Japanese proposals.[642]