On Wednesday the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Isvolsky,
introduced in the Duma a Bill for converting the Russian Legation at Tokio into an Embassy. He took the opportunity to review the relations of Russia and Japan, and to define the foreign policy of Russia. Russia had lost nothing of her ancient inheritance by the war with Japan. What had fallen into the bands of Japan naturally gravitated towards her, or had been formerly the fruits of such enter- prise as was beyond Russia's strength to maintain. Such enterprises bad been necessarily abandoned in South Man- churia and the Kwang-tung Peninsula. Both Russia and Japan desired peace, and he was convinced that the Conven- tions signed on July 28th at St. Petersburg were of great value. They had been attacked as inadequate, but tibey were not the sole guarantee of peace in the Far East. They were only parts of a system of which the essential point was the Franco-Russian Alliance. The Franco-Japanese Agreement and the Anglo-Russian Convention were also links in the strong chain of circumstance which ensured peace. M. Isvolsky's speech was very optimistic and was well received. The Bill for establishing an Embassy at Tokio was voted by all parties except the Social Democrats.
