There is obviously some uneasiness in the Far East. All
observers report an increase of the war feeling in Japan, and although the Government of Tokio is not greatly moved by popular excitement, it has certainly some fears for Korea, which it has a fixed purpose to defend. There are perpetual rumours, too, of coming disturbances in China, which may or may not be circulated, as is alleged, by Russian agents, but which are ominous of coming unrest, while the Americans are quietly accumulating a powerful fleet in the North Pacific. The Americans, indeed, are distinctly angry at what they conceive to be the Russian breach of faith in retaining Manchuria, and the Russian " unfriendliness " in forbidding China to establish more open ports in Manchuria. They do not, they say, intend to lose their right to free trading with all quarters of China. We cannot, for our own part, see what possible interest Russia can have in limiting Manchurian trade, whether she annexes the province or not, but there is evidently uneasiness, which has led to a secret conference of all Russian agents in the Far East with the Russian Minister of War at Port Arthur. It is quite possible, nevertheless, that the conference is only to arrange for certain defensive precau- tions which would be required if Japan were to take the bit in her teeth.
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