Japan is planning so to increase the size and efficiency of her navy as to make it superior to the combined fleets of Russia and France in eastern waters. To do this she has laid out an urgency naval program which provides for the building of 25 new warships. Five of these will be first-class battleships, 2 first-class cruisers, 8 second-class cruisers, and 10 torpedo-boat destroyers. This will give her a navy whose total tonnage will amount to 393,102 tons. As Japan's credit is not of the best, a great portion of the necessary means for this increase must be raised by direct taxation of the people, who are already overburdened with taxes. Thus we see how the burdens of the world are being increased in preparation for the battles that are to be. Each nation has its plans mapped out, and they are contrary the one to the other, are bound to clash sooner or later; and when they do, so intricate are the interweavings of international complications that the world is bound to be involved.