LOWERING CLOUDS IN THE ORIENT.
By Editor
AS THESE columns close, there is every prospect of war in the far East. Japan has become impatient at Russia's diplomatic tactics, and has broken off diplomatic relations with Russia, ordering her minister at St. Petersburg, with the entire legation, to quit Russian territory at the earliest possible date. Russia, therefore, telegraphed her minister at Tokio to demand his passports, and leave Japanese territory. These officials are making hasty preparations for departure, and the two nations are preparing for the clash which they feel must follow the severance of diplomatic relations. Japan has felt that Russia was strengthening her position in the East, while delaying negotiations to the farthest possible limit, and she knew that Russia would lay upon her the blame for any hasty move toward serious consequences. This Russia has now done. Japan is losing sympathy, to some extent, by breaking off relations, and yet she feels that her very existence is at stake in permitting Russia to continue, unchecked, the course which she has been pursuing in the East. It is rumored that Japan will at once despatch troops to Korea, and a clash between the navies of the two powers may be looked for at any moment. The Russian ships are reported cleared for action, and Japan has called home those of her subjects in America, who are known as "first-call" men. The conflict is bound to be a gigantic one—Japan fighting for national independence, and Russia fighting for a long-cherished purpose. The result of the conflict is terrible to contemplate in the waste of means but far more in the waste of human life and the untold suffering which is bound to result.