ton, with the privilege of adjourning
to some place in New England if the weather was too hot, was finally
accepted. The formal meeting between the plenipotentiaries took place
at Oyster Bay on the 5th of August on board the Presidential yacht, the
Mayflower. Roosevelt received his guests in the cabin and proposed a
toast in these words: "Gentlemen, I propose a toast to which there will
be no answer and which I ask you to drink in silence, standing. I drink
to the welfare and prosperity of the sovereigns and the peoples of the
two great nations whose representatives have met one another on this
ship. It is my earnest hope and prayer, in the interest not only of
these two great powers, but of all civilized mankind, that a just and
lasting peace may speedily be concluded between them."

The two groups of plenipotentiaries were carried, each on an American
naval vessel, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and there at the Navy Yard
began their conference. Two-thirds of the terms proposed by Japan were
promptly accepted by the Russian envoys. But an irretrievable split on
the remainder seemed inevitable. Japan demanded a money indemnity and
the cession of the southern half of the island of Saghalien, which
Japanese forces had already occupied. These demands the Russians
refused.

Then Roosevelt took a hand in the proceedings. He urged the Japanese
delegates, through the Japanese Ambassador, to give up their demand
for an indemnity. He pointed out that, when it came to "a question
of rubles," the Russian Government and the Russian people were firmly
resolved not to yield. To Baron Rosen, one of the Russian delegates, he
recommended yielding in the matter of Saghalien, since the Japanese were
already in possession and there were racial and historical grounds
for considering the southern half of the island logically Japanese
territory. The envoys met again, and the Japanese renewed their demands.
The Russians refused. Then the Japanese offered to waive the indemnity
if the Russians would yield on Saghalien. The offer was accepted, and
the peace was made.

Immediately Roosevelt was acclaimed by the world, including the Russians
and the Japanese, as a great peacemaker. The Nobel Peace Prize of a
medal and $40,000 was awarded to him. But it was not long before both in
Russia and Japan public opinion veered to the point of asserting that
he had caused peace to be made too soon and to the detriment of the
interests of the nation in qu