y and retaining a Japanese military mission on Far
Eastern territory. _Re_ evacuation, the Japanese presented a Note
promising evacuation if "not prevented by unforeseen
circumstances." The Russian Delegation rejected this ultimatum.
On April 16th the Japanese declared the Dairen Conference broken
up. The Japanese delegates left for Tokyo, and Japanese troops
remain in the zone established by the agreement of March 29th.

Readers will believe one or other of these official statements according
to their prejudices, while those who wish to think themselves impartial
will assume that the truth lies somewhere between the two. For my part,
I believe the Russian statement. But even from the Japanese communique
it is evident that what wrecked the Conference was Japanese
unwillingness to evacuate Vladivostok and the Maritime Province; all
that they were willing to give was a vague promise to evacuate some day,
which would have had no more value than Mr. Gladstone's promise to
evacuate Egypt.

It will be observed that the Conference went well for Chita until the
Senate had ratified the Washington treaties. After that, the Japanese
felt that they had a free hand in all Far Eastern matters not dealt with
at Washington. The practical effect of the Washington decisions will
naturally be to make the Japanese seek compensation, at the expense of
the Far Eastern Republic, for what they have had to surrender in China.
This result was to be expected, and was presumably foreseen by the
assembled peacemakers.[85]

It will be seen that the Japanese policy involves hostility to Russia.
This is no doubt one reason for the friendship between Japan and France.
Another reason is that both are the champions of nationalistic
capitalism, as against the international capitalism aimed at by Messrs.
Morgan and Mr. Lloyd George, because France and Japan look to their
armaments as the chief source of their income, while England and America
look rather to their commerce and industry. It would be interesting to
compute how much coal and iron France and Japan have acquired in recent
years by means of their armies. England and America already possessed
coal and iron; hence their different policy. An uninvited delegation
from the Far Eastern Republic at Washington produced documents tending
to show that France and Japan came there as secret allies. Although the
authenticity of the documents was denied, most people, apparently,