Two months nevertheless elapsed before the
plenipotentiaries of the two powers met, on August 10th, at
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Russia sent M. (afterwards Count) de Witte
and Baron Rosen; Japan, Baron (afterwards Marquis) Komura, who had
held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs throughout the war, and Mr.
(afterwards Baron) Takahira. The Japanese statesmen well understood
that much of the credit accruing to them for their successful conduct
of the war must be forfeited in the sequel of the negotiations. For
the people of Japan had accustomed themselves to expect that Russia
would recoup a great part, if not the whole, of the expenses incurred
by their country in the contest, whereas the ministry in Tokyo knew
that to look for payment of indemnity by a great State whose
territory has not been invaded effectively or its existence menaced
must be futile.

Nevertheless, diplomacy required that this conviction should be
concealed, and thus Russia carried to the conference a belief that
the financial phase of the discussion would be crucial. Baron
Komura's mandate was, however, that the only radically essential
terms were those formulated by Japan prior to the war. She must
insist on securing the ends for which she had fought, since she
believed them to be indispensable to the peace of the Far East, but
beyond that she would not go. The Japanese plenipotentiaries,
therefore, judged it wise to submit their terms in the order of the
real importance, leaving their Russian colleagues to imagine, as they
probably would, that the converse method had been adopted, and that
everything prefatory to questions of finance and territory was of
minor consequence.

The negotiations, commencing on the 10th of August, were not
concluded until the 5th of September, when a treaty of peace was
signed. There had been a moment when the onlooking world believed
that unless Russia agreed to ransom the island of Saghalien by paying
to Japan a sum of 120 millions sterling,--$580,000,000, the
conference would be broken off. Nor did such an exchange seem
unreasonable, for were Russia expelled from the northern part of
Saghalien, which commands the estuary of the Amur, her position in
Siberia would have been compromised. But Japan's statesmen were not
disposed to make any display of territorial aggression. The southern
half of Saghalien had originally belonged to Japan and had passed
into Russia's possession by an arrangement which the Japanese nation