the Japanese
Navy to their English comrades is of a very hearty nature. The formal
alliance with Great Britain was highly popular in the Japanese Fleet,
and I have never heard any officer connected therewith speak in any
but the highest and most cordial terms of their English _confreres_.

It is not, I think, necessary for me to refer to the deeds of and the
work done by the Japanese Navy in the course of the war with Russia;
very much the same remarks that I have made in regard to the Army
apply here. Nothing was lost sight of or omitted that could in the
slightest degree tend to ensure or secure success. Everything seems to
have been foreseen. Nothing was left to chance. The results were
precisely what might have been expected, and what indeed were
expected, by those who had an intimate knowledge of the manner in
which the Japanese Navy was organised for war. I regard it especially
in alliance with the English Fleet, as one of the greatest safeguards
for the peace of the world. I trust the alliance between this country
and Japan may be of a permanent nature. I may remark in respect of the
Fleet, as I have of the Army, that Japan has no unworthy ambitions.
Her desire is to conserve what she possesses and to render her Island
Empire secure from invasion or molestation.

Closely connected with the development of Japan's Navy is that of her
Mercantile Marine. A few words in regard to it may therefore not be
out of place here. The insular position and the mountainous condition
of the country, as well as its extent of seaboard, early impressed on
the makers of new Japan the necessity for creating not only a great
mercantile fleet but also for developing the shipbuilding industry.
Both these ambitions have been largely realised. At first their
consummation was attended with many difficulties. The Japanese, as I
have already remarked in this book, were many centuries ago
enterprising sailors, but when the country was closed voyages of
discovery or trade automatically came to an end. With the awakening of
Japan a change immediately took place, and steps were taken to create
and develop the Mercantile Marine. A Japanese gentleman, Mr. Iwasaki,
in 1872 started a line of steamers, subsidised by the Government, the
well-known Mitsu Bishi Company. Shortly afterwards another company was
formed to compete against it. This line was also subsidised by the
Government, but as the rivalry did not prove profitable to either the
two line