Russia and Japan The rumours of imminent war between Russia
and Japan over the Chinese Eastern Railway have now given place to rumours of the proposed sale of the concern by Russia to Japan. There is nothing unlikely about this, for Russia is in no position to fight, and, on the other hand, it can hardly sit down tamely and see the railway quietly taken over. Moreover, any payment Japan might make would be welcome grist to the treasury at Moscow. But the proposed transaction is not so simple. In the first place Japan has no great need of the railway, for there are other subsidiary lines in Manchukuo which serve her purpose well enough, and the sum Japan is said to be prepared to offer falls so far short of the Russian demand that there seems hardly basis for the compromised agree- ment. But the general result of the negotiations is a certain relaxation of the tension and actual fighting between Russia and Japan is less immediate than it was a week ago. On China's general position attention may be drawn to a comprehensive survey by M. William Martin, till lately the well-known Foreign Editor of the Journal de Geneve, on a later page.
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