lutely
neutral in the matter, as she had quite enough of war during the
China-Japan war. She said it would be best to issue orders to all the
officials to see that the Chinese did not interfere in any way, so as
not to give any excuse for being brought into the trouble.

She then asked his opinion as to what would be the result in the event
of war--who would win. He said that it was very hard to say, but that
he thought Japan would win. Her Majesty thought that if Japan were
victorious, she would not have so much trouble over the matter, although
she expressed doubts as to the outcome, saying that Russia was a large
country and had many soldiers, and that the result was far from certain.

Her Majesty then spoke about the condition of things in China. She said
that in case China were forced into war with another nation, we should
be nowhere. We had nothing ready, no navy and no trained army, in fact
nothing to enable us to protect ourselves. Yuan Shih Kai, however,
assured her there was no need to anticipate any trouble at present so
far as China was concerned. Her Majesty replied that in any event it
was time China began to wake up and endeavor to straighten things out in
some way or other, but she did not know where to begin; that it was her
ambition to see China holding a prominent position among the nations
of the world and that she was constantly receiving memorials suggesting
this reform and that reform, but that we never seemed to get any
further.

After this audience was over, Her Majesty held an audience with the
Grand Council. She told them what had been said during her interview
with Yuan Shih Kai, and of course they all agreed that something should
be done. Several suggestions were discussed with regard to national
defense, etc., but a certain Prince said that although he was in perfect
sympathy with reform generally, he was very much against the adoption of
foreign clothing, foreign modes of living, and the doing away with the
queue. Her Majesty quite agreed with these remarks and said that it
would not be wise to change any Chinese custom for one which was less
civilized. As usual, nothing definite was decided upon when the audience
was over.

For the next few days nothing was talked of but the war, and many
Chinese generals were received in audience by Her Majesty. These
audiences were sometimes very amusing, as these soldiers were quite
unaccustomed to the rules of the Court and did not know the mode