The Japanese will desire first of all to make their
seas safe, and so secure an inviolable base of operations. It is reported on good authority that they have purchased or hired numerous trading steamers to serve as transports. Finan- cially Japan seems in a strong position, for her Government possesses three large capital funds which can be operated on, and a substantial specie reserve both in Tokio and London. In the event of naval success—which as yet is entirely matter of conjecture—the war may last long, for Russia will fight by land in a slow but very terrible way, will, in fact, repeat the war of the Caucasus ; and its reflex effects in Europe, especially in the Balkans, must be considerable. The fears, however, of a general war as bound to arise out of the struggle are as yet premature. Great efforts will be made to localise the contest, and the dread of compelling Great Britain, or France, or America to intervene will exercise a calming effect which will be felt even though it is the interest of Germany that any
one of these Powers should be occupied, or perhaps crippled, by a great naval struggle. The precise relations of the re- maining Powers to the protagonists are still not known, and it may very well happen that the war may be one in which, as in the case of the Transvaal War, the nations and their rulers may be of different minds.
