The news of the week from the Far East is
on the whole disastrous. The feeling in Japan against Russia is said to be rising higher. Japan is believed to be buying warships in Val- paraiso, and summoning home all military and medical students from Europe and America, while her Admiralty is picking out "fighting officers" to command her squadrons. On the other side, Russia refuses to relinquish Manchuria, hesitates to give even assurances about Korea, and disorganises the business of the Siberian Railway by her efforts to push troops, more especially cavalry, to the front. Her diplomatists are growing polite, too, and though they insinuate that the Japanese mis- calculate their strength, admit that the Japanese infantry are in fairly good order. It is quite possible that the ideas of both Governments are exaggerated by their reporters in the interest of financiers, but the acts sanctioned by Tokio and St. Petersburg appear to reveal extreme mutual distrust.
