Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

INTRODUCTION

I5

spects. In the meantime, Japan had put forward a second
amendment, on November 21, claiming that she could not
agree to excluding Manchuria from the province of discussion,
insisting that the clause prohibiting the military use of the
Korean territory be struck out, and stating that if Russia failed
to concur with the Japanese amendment on the point the clause
referring to the neutral zone should be omitted altogether.
While trying to retard the progress of diplomatic negotiation, Russia pressed on with her military preparations in the
Far East. Japan therefore issued on December 28 an urgency
ordinance on the disbursement of extraordinary military
expenses, an ordinance regarding the speedy construction of
the Seoul-Fusan Railway, and other ordinances necessary for
the conduct of a prospective war. The purchase of two warships on December 30, was a further step in Japan's preparedness for emergency. The popular sentiment of the Japanese
also attained a white heat by this time and indicated a determination to fight as one man in this national calamity.
The Russian reply to Japan's second amendment came
on January 6, 1904. Though appearing to have compromised
on various points, it still held to the former position of Russia
in the main, namely, that should Japan agree to the prohibition of the military use of Korean territory and to the Russian
insistence upon the creation of a neutral zone, Russia would
guarantee the rights that Japan and other powers possess in
Manchuria by virtue of the existing treaties. Needless to
say whether Japan could or could not consent to such a condition as this. Yet on January 17 she proposed the last compromise and called for Russia's reconsideration. The proposition insisted upon the omission of the clauses regarding the
limitation of territorial use and the creation of a neutral zone.
It also amended the Russian proposal about Manchuria.
Russia, however, neither replied nor appointed a date of
reply. Thereupon Japan took a decisive stand and on February 6 instructed her representative at Petrograd to notify
the Russian Government of the severance of diplomatic
relations. War was declared on February Io.