was formed and trained by German science. It was Major-
General Meckel who drew up in or about 1885 the plan of conscription which has proved so effective, and who during his residence in Japan educated the officers—General Ktu.oki, for example—who have proved such apt students of the art of war. This is fully admitted by Marshal Yamagata, the Japanese Minister of War and Generalissimo, who at the outset of the campaign wrote to General Meckel to express confidence that his pupils would do him and Japan full credit. General Meckel thinks Port Arthur will fall, as the men are ready to give their lives, "everything in the Army that exists on paper is actually, there," and "among the officers there are a marvellous number of clear- headed fellows." Once they are ready, the Japanese will not hesitate to expend five thousand men in carrying the fortress. The readiness of the Japanese to accept foreign instruction is marvellous; but the quality is not entirely confined to Japan. A few French officers made of the Mahrattas soldiers who were formidable even to Wellington ; and Runjeet Singh's Sikh soldiery, who shook our Indian ,Empire, were all trained by Dutch, Italian, and French officers' . The Indian Government are well aware of this truth, and in every treaty with a feudatory State insert a clause forbidding the employ- ment of any European or American military instructor. The clause, by the way, does not cover the Japanese.
