The most serious news from the Far East is that
both Russia and Japan are sending squadrons to the coast of Korea. The intention of the Japanese is to enforce certain demands on the Korean Government, and of the Russians to encourage that Government to resist them, and the Admirals may very easily come into collision. The Russian Admiral probably believes his country irresistible, while the Japanese Admiral may share the popular conviction in Tokio that as war with Russia must come soon it had better come now. The Japanese hold the independence of Korea essential to their very existence, because if Korean ports were shut there would not be food enough for the population of the islands, which has for some time past slightly outstripped its home- grown means of subsistence. One shot fired in a Korean harbour may make peace impossible, even though M. de Witte is striving with all his might to preserve it, and it is not certain that the statesmen of Japan would hear that shot with horror. Their plans for mobilisation are not quite ready, but their fleet is. In any case the quarrel is not ours, and we shall, we trust, refuse resolutely to be drawn into it.
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