years of work they began to reap the fruits of their efforts.

In 1871 the Japanese had 17 small ships of war, with an aggregate tonnage of only 6,000. In 1894, when they entered on their war with China, their war vessels numbered 33, with an aggregate tonnage of 61,000. After that war naval expansion proceeded much more briskly, in view of the preparations which were made to fight Russia. Between 1895 and 1902 no less a sum than £22,000,000 was spent on shipbuilding, the result being that at the beginning of the Russian War the Japanese Navy mustered 76 warships, with an aggregate tonnage of 275,000, as against the Russian fleet of 83 ships, with an aggregate tonnage of 410,000. Japan was weak in first-class battleships, having only 6 in commission, as against the 15 battleships with which the Russian Navy started the war.

The results of the war added 6 captured battleships to the Japanese Navy, besides 4 cruisers and a number of small craft, giving a total tonnage of 104,000. Deducting Japan's losses of 2 battleships, 4 cruisers, and other craft, with an approximate tonnage of 46,000, the war brought the Japanese Navy a net tonnage gain of 58,000. To the captured ships must be added the 2 battleships Katori and Kashima, commissioned in 1906, which were built in England under the shipbuilding programme of 1903, and the 2 battleships Aki and Satsuma, now building in Japan, together with 8 new cruisers,

also built or building in Japan, and 30 new destroyers. By the middle of 1907 the strength of the Japanese Navy will approximate a tonnage of 500,000, divided among 17 battleships, 34 armoured and protected cruisers, 54 destroyers, and 79 torpedo - boats, besides 5 submarines, and other small accessory craft. Japan will then possess a navy equal in numerical strength to one-quarter of that of Great Britain, and will rank fifth among the naval Powers of the world, being ahead of Italy, and treading close on the heels of America.1

The Japanese have now five principal naval stations, at each of which there is an Admiral commanding-in-chief. There is the central station at Yokosuka, in a corner of the Bay of Tokyo; the station at Kure, near Hiroshima (visited by the writer), situated in a secure retreat in the Inland Sea; the station of Sasebo (visited by the writer) at the entrance to the Straits of Korea; the station of Maizuru, centrally placed on the north coast of Japan; and the newly acquired Port Arthur, where an Admiral's command has now been established. These stations have been selected for purposes of strategical convenience, having regard to defensive

1 This volume will be passed for the press before the publication of the Japanese Naval Estimates for the ensuing year; but it is understood that the Naval Budget will include a sum of £7,500,000 (in addition to the normal shipbuilding vote) to be spread over seven years for increasing the strength of the navy.

security for the dockyards as well as to the necessities for offensive concentration for the fleet. At each station there is a dockyard and naval arsenal in a condition of more or less development. The Yokosuka naval station is the oldest, dating from 1884; but Kure, established some years later, possesses the largest and most important dockyard and naval arsenal in Japan. After Kure and Yokosuka, Sasebo comes next in importance, the Maizuru dockyard not having been opened till 1901. All these naval, stations are strongly fortified, and are independent of naval defence.

Until lately nearly all the Japanese ships of war were built in England, some few ships only having been obtained from France and Germany; but since the development of the Yokosuka dockyard, and more recently of that of Kure, Japan has become gradually and increasingly self-dependent as regards shipbuilding, and will obtain fewer vessels every year from English yards. Two firstclass armoured cruisers, the Ikoma (14,000 tons) and the Tsukuba (14,000 tons), have already been launched from Kure dockyard, while the Satsuma (18,000 tons) was launched in November, 1906, at Yokosuka, and the Aki, now under construction at Kure, is expected to be floated early in 1907. All guns, even for ships built in England, are now made in the Kure Arsenal, where there is a gun factory as large and well equipped as at Woolwich and Elswick.

Naval organization in Japan is based on the same