390 THE FAR EAST. 



command of the sea once in the hands of Japan — and 

 the mastery of the sea was the first object of Japanese 

 strategists — the prospects of a decisive Eussian success 

 were by no means so bright as was too widely supposed. 

 This impression can only be strengthened by a con- 

 sideration of the forces at the disposal of the island 

 empire. 



The calibre of the Japanese fighting power was dis- 

 played when her troops came into contact with those 

 of China in 1894, though her real power was perhaps 

 scarcely accurately gauged, since China, which had up 

 to that time been proclaimed a tower of strength, was, 

 on her defeat, dubbed, with easy inconsistency, a 

 negligible foe. The high standard of efficiency which 

 she had then displayed was, however, maintained when 

 she again came within the range of military criticism. 

 " The Japanese contingent," writes Sir Eobert Hart, in 

 the same paragraph in which he indulges in his lament 

 over the carelessness of the Russians, " numbered only 

 twenty-five men ; but the work they subsequently did, 

 and the way they did it, won everybody's admiration, 

 and would have done honour to five times their num- 

 ber," 1 and the fact that it was that part of the city 

 apportioned to the troops of Japan, when the time came 

 for the pacification of Peking, that was first resettled 

 and restored to order, was by no means lost upon the 

 minds of the observant. 



Those indeed who watched carefully the operations 

 of the international force did not hesitate to place 

 the soldiers of the Mikado in the foremost rank, and 

 when those whose duty it is to take note of such things 

 came to interpret what they had seen with the aid sup- 

 plied by a knowledge of the ethics of the nation, they 

 cannot have failed to realise that there had sprung up 



1 These from the Land of Sinim. 



