The policy of China in this affair is still a
mystery. She professes cold neutrality, but she begins to grant, especially to America, the very concessions that Russia most resists. Moreover, she is silently gathering up force, concentrating all foreign-trained troops within the Viceroyalty of Pechili, importing millions of cartridges from Japan, and working her own arsenals—which are now numerous—night and day. It looks, in short, as if the Empress-Regent intended to seize an opportunity. The situation in Korea is still more doubtful. It is believed on the spot that the population is "excited" against foreigners ; and the European States and America have provided small guards for the Legations. No one, however, explains why the population is excited, or whether the excitement is directed only against Europeans, or includes the Japanese. A general rising against all foreigners accom- panied by massacre would, of course, complicate affairs most seriously, as both Russia and Japan would probably "occupy" the great peninsula—it is as large as Great Britain—in order to "restore order." The Court is described as hopelessly inept ; and the majority of the people, though large-limbed and active, are not fighting men.
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Nothing is more remarkable in all this Russo-Japanese
