Q 99 O O H i o AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS Journal of A Russian Prisoner's Wife in Japan By ELIZA RUHAMAH SCIDMORE Author of "Jinrikisha Days in Japan," "Java: the Garden of the East, " China: the Long-lived Empire" and " Winter India" Illustrated NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1907 COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Published April, THE QUINN ft BODEN CO. PRESS, RAHWAY, H. J. TO EMILY E. 2138063 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. EUROPE 1 II. AMERICA 9 III. JAPAN 19 IV. MATSUYAMA, THE PINE-CLAD HILL . . 36 V. THE BARRACKS HOSPITAL .... 48 VI. THE RED CROSS OF JAPAN .... 54 VII. THE DOYO 64 VIII. THE "RURIK'S" MEN . . . . ' . 76 IX, THE CZAREVITCH 84 X. MY JAPANESE HOME 93 XI. AFTER LIAOYANG'S BATTLE .... 100 XII. THE SEPTEMBER MOON Ill XIII. THE LIAOYANG MEN 122 XIV. THE SHAHO MEN 130 XV. IN KAKI TIME 139 XVI. "LA VEUVE ANGLAISE" 156 XVII. "LA BELLE CANADIENNE" . . . .161 XVIII. LOVERS' MEETING 170 XIX. THE FOREIGNER KWANNON . . ' . C . 175 XX. IN KIKU TIME . .V . . , .184 XXI. A HAPPY NEW YEAH FOR JAPAN . . . 190 XXII. ALL is LOST EVEN HONOUR . . . 195 XXIII. "GREAT SOVEREIGN, FORGIVE !" . . 202 v vi CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XXIV. "KINGS IN EXILE" 210 XXV. DARK DAYS 217 XXVI. FROM PORT ARTHUR 224 XXVII. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NOT SMOOTH IN JAPAN . 232 XXVIII. DAILY LIFE 239 XXIX. THE EXILED STUDENT . . . .247 XXX. THE NIGHT LODGERS 256 XXXI. THE DULL ROUTINE 263 XXXII. THE FINDING OF TOSABURO . . .269 XXXIII. A LITTLE VICTORY 277 XXXIV. MUKDEN'S DESPAIR 287 XXXV. THE HAPPY DAY . . ... 294 XXXVI. AT HOME COLONEL AND MRS. VLADIMIR VON THEILL 302 XXXVII. LOVE LAUGHS AT PRISON BARS . . .311 XXXVIII. THE RUSSIAN ARMADA . . . .317 XXXIX. Two FUTURES 323 XL. "PEACE! PEACE!" 330 XLI. AFTER THE WAR 338 XLII. SAYONAHA! . 352 THEY PUT ALL THE OFFICERS OUT IN ONE COMMON WARD FOR THREE DAYS . . Frontispiece PAGE THE HILL WAS CROWNED WITH ONE OF THOSE FANTAS- TIC JAPANESE CHATEAUX 36 THEIR RED CROSS GOWNS AND PASTRY COOK CAPS MIGHT Do FOR FUTURE USE AT FANCY DRESS BALLS . . 102 "I DID NOT EXPECT THEM TO FEED AND FAN ME, PUT A CIGARETTE IN MY MOUTH AND LIGHT IT FOR ME" . 124 A PRISONERS' ORCHESTRA 160 ONE ARTILLERY OFFICER BROUGHT His LITTLE DAUGHTER 216 EACH HAS AN ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE, LANDSCAPE GAR- DEN, AND TENNIS COURT ..... 236 LOOKING TOWARD THE INLAND SEA, FROM CASTLE TERRACE 342 THE HAGUE 1899 CONVENTION WITH RESPECT TO THE LAWS ANB CUSTOMS OF WAR ON LAND Annex: Section 1Settigerentt. Chapter II Prisoners of War. Article VII. The Government into whose hands prisoners of war have fallen is bound to maintain them. Failing a special agreement between the bel- ligerents, prisoners of war shall be treated as regards food, quarters and clothing, on the same footing as the troops of the Government which has captured them. AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS CHAPTER I EUROPE Thursday, June 16th. ' ^HE blow so long dreaded has at last fallen, * and, after crouching away from it for weeks, it is almost a relief from the long tension of emotion and fear to have had it happen to know the worst. It was not the unexpected either; since, from that day of awful shame and stupefaction, when every one turned his eyes away from his friend's gaze in humiliation at the defeat of our army at the Yalu River, and its flight from the yellow hordes since then, we women at home have had our minds filled with the worst presentiments. Vladimir, while out on a scouting expedition with a few Cossacks, has been captured and taken to a prison in Japan ! That was a strange enterprise surely, for a staff colonel, the diplomatic adviser and legal aide, whose presence at headquarters was solely to make 2 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS rulings in international law and draft the treaty, strange for him to be off on a scouting trip. Had they no young Cossack officers for such work? I was wakened early by Anna drawing the cur- tains noisily and throwing the strong daylight in my face. Evidently the telegraph messenger had given her an idea of the contents of the official message he brought, for with great excitement she said: "It is news from Manchuria. Oh! read it quick, barina." I only thought of death or wounds, and could scarcely tear the paper apart to read : "Prisoner healthy. Write Matsuyama, Japan Vladimir." My heart leaped and stopped beating, all my life currents seemed streaming out from my cold fin- ger tips, and I could not think. Slowly the words, as I stared at them, brought their full meaning to me. As if present before me, I saw Vladimir led along a road by soldiers, a cord tied to his clasped hands as I had often seen convicts led through the streets in Japan vividly I saw the disconsolate figures in faded, salmon-pink clothes, and peaked straw hats like their thatch roofs and fences, half concealing the faces. I heard the clank of fetters, and then I shrieked with horror, with anger, at the mere idea. How dare they? How dare they? In a fury of excitement I dressed, drank my coffee standing, while Anna held the tray and fol- EUROPE 3 lowed me around the room, blankly, dumbly, won- dering. I almost ran to the A s to tell them. Of course I should go at once to Japan. Of that there was no kind of doubt. With no family, no children, no estates, no people or duties to hold me here, how could it be supposed for one moment that I should not go to Japan? Should I sit here in Petersburg, and Vladimir live in prison in Japan? Not at all. Not at all. I dread the Red Cross meetings, because some women always talk of Japan, as they do of Eng- land, with the view of deriding and insulting me, it would seem. At that last meeting, Sophia and Hilka Belogotrovy were discussing whether it would not be better to be killed outright in battle, than to be tortured and starved to death in a Japanese prison. I kept still with difficulty, and Sophia was malicious enough to see it, and rant the more for my benefit. They will not under- stand that there is any difference between Japan and China, and I long ago found it of no avail to try to set them right about Japan and the Japanese. They called me "Japonski" if I at- tempted to tell them anything about Japan. They prefer an imaginary barbarism to the highly civilised Japan that exists. This hideous war has resulted from just such Russian ignorance of Japan ; and then, it is cruel, after my long and loyal championship of Japan in 4 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS all countries, that this blow should come to me from it. I can laugh now, almost to hysterics, to remember how I besought Vladimir to throw all his influence, to strain every point of mercy when it came to the treaty-making; to be merciful to the spirited, sensitive people who could not com- prehend what they were so madly rushing upon. And how I threatened to rush across and join him in Tokyo, when a triumphant Russia should be making peace terms there! I counted upon the negotiation and all that occupying a long time, and I wanted to be there again to see the old pine trees on the grey castle walls, the pink and white lotus in the long stretches of the castle moats and to soften the hearts of the conqueror to the Japanese, whom I have loved so long and so much. And now, on what an errand I go to Japan ! At first, they thought it madness for me to think of going to Japan, and opposed it. "They will imprison you too and who knows what tor- tures they have in their filthy prisons. Oh! They will make both of you work in their nasty rice fields," said the Princess Tilly, who was never clear in her mind that Japan was not a province of China. I wanted to leave that very night, but the trans-Siberian line was impossible because of the delays and the impasse at the Manchurian end, EUROPE 5 and the Suez route was not to be faced in mid- summer. Nicholas A explained to me quietly about my passport for leaving Russia, in the first place ; my letter of credit for funds to travel with, in the second place; besides the necessity of send- ing requests to take leave at Tsarskoe, and of the Grand Duchesses, and of resigning from the Red Cross Committees. All my world of Petersburg came to the station to see me off , with flowers, lamentations, bonbons, books, and cheers for my long voyage. It was little like that going away of the troops early in the year with gay promises of "On to Tokyo!" My "On to Tokyo" was sad enough. I slept and I woke, and changed carriages at the frontier. I slept and I woke at Berlin, and changed to the Ostend train, and I came into London one afternoon at the end of the season, and found such a strangeness in all its familiar scenes that a chill struck me. The change was in myself, not in London. The newsboys in the streets held billboards announcing: "Another Japanese Victory. The Russians in Retreat as Usual. Kuropatkin still 'luring them on !' " And every one grinned to read the lines. "And bally well they deserve all this," said a man in the street in my hearing. Barclay's rushed my credit through; I left my jewel box and all Vladimir's papers with them, 6 'AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS and I added something for faithful Anna to my will at the solicitors'. Anna, who has followed my fortunes so faithfully for these dozen and more years, made no protests against this strange trip; and as she is German and is good in her English, and is unsurpassed as a courier, will be invaluable. I drew every rouble of credit I had in St. Peters- burg, by Nicholas A 's advice, for he says he foresees only trouble riots and revolution ahead, a Reign of Terror, if the fortunes of war do not quickly change. All these disasters have inflamed the people, who now resist mobilisation, and it is a question if they can be kept down if any more troops are taken away for the front. The Tsarskoe crowd are furious with Kuropatkin that he does not land his armies in Japan. Now, I have only to sit still for these weeks to come, and think and think, while the machinery does the rest and takes me on and on until I stand at the prison door and try to see Vladimir. I wonder if I shall have to sing under the window like Coeur de Lion's little page, to find him and let him know I am there ! I telegraphed of course, from Petersburg, and again from London, that I am coming, and he must know that I am now on my way to Japan. To Japan! the trip that we have so often talked of taking together ! How strange it will be for me to find myself again in Japan! A changed Japan, and a EUROPE 7 changed Sophia Ivanovna too! I wonder if there will be any one there who knew me before, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years ago? I fear not, and I shall be glad to have it so. Of course the name is different now, and I was such a child then. Certainly these ten years of quiet happiness and a contented heart with Vladimir, have made me another being in another world. I wonder how real the past will seem ; if the horror of those days of revelation, disillusionment, and degradation will come back? if, in the same scenes, I shall see the bloated figure, the satyr's face of Paul before me? and remember again, how his hideous nature was revealed to me too late? how his grossness, his coarse pleasures, his cruelties crushed me? I often used to start from dreams in a cold chill of terror, having lived again in the dark, gloomy, little Tokyo house, my bruised body aching, my ears ringing with Paul's drunken voice. I could not endure to stay in Russia after that. Everything Russian was unpleasant to me, and England and my mother's kinsfolk seemed my only home and attachments. Then followed the winters abroad with my invalid uncle, the meeting with Vladimir, and last our happy life in Rome. In the first years, when Vladimir found it necessary to go back to Russia each summer, I used to wonder why I was so indifferent to Russia. Why I felt myself so aloof, such an outsider and spec- 8 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS tator, really only a critic, when I was in Russia. Although every one was so kind to me in Peters- burg, the sovereigns were so gracious, and Vladi- mir so fortunate, I found myself caring less for, almost disliking the Russian life. It seemed to me that the whole thing was a sham, a thin veneer of western civilisation, a clever imitation up to a certain point. The government denied too much to the people, and the want of education in the masses appalled me. Vladimir has always be- lieved in compulsory education, in fewer prisons and barracks and more schoolhouses. That quaint old American Minister, who came to Madrid after Petersburg, used to say that he had only changed jails, as far as he could see; only that he as a diplomat had a little more liberty than the shackled people in either country. "What Russia needs most is more soap and spell- ing books ; fewer princes and more country school- masters ; fewer diamonds, on the bare-backed court ladies in Petersburg, and more broken stone on the country roads." "Then, as for Spain !" he said, "she wants fewer priests, more soap, and more schoolmasters too." He longed to get back to "God's country," as he called America, "Which smelled neither of leather boots nor garlic." A droll old fellow, who quite bewitched my Vladimir. CHAPTER II AMERICA June 30th. TT seems ages to me since I left Petersburg that hot June day, and almost as long since the hotter day that I sat and stood five weary hours on the docks of New York. The Americans claim to be a civilised people, but the difficulties they made us, the restrictions they laid down as to our landing in their free country, would disgrace Abyssinia or Persia. We answered innumerable questions on board the ship, signed papers, and paid an entrance fee of five roubles to gain the land of liberty! What a misnomer! It must be a bit of American humour, or* rather a gibe of France, to have erected that great statue of Liberty Enlightening the World at the mouth of the harbour. Oh ! Liberty ! what crimes are com- mitted in thy name in America. When I went through America years ago, we had a diplomatic privilege, a laissez-passer for the Customs, and all that. It was all bows, courtesy, effusive politeness. To-day, Anna and I are only two cabin passengers, nationality, Russian; 9 10 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS occupation, blank; ages, forty and forty-two; not paupers, criminals, nor lunatics, as they closely inquired; not suffering with any conta- gious disease; possessing at least one hundred roubles each, so that we shall not become a charge on the charitable institutions of the country ! We were alone. I had kept entirely to myself on the ship, and we had no one to appeal to from the brusque and surly officials. There was no cafe or waiting-room, and, with all the richly dressed Americans, we were driven down on the dock and sat there among cargo boxes to wait for our luggage. America did not smell of leather or garlic that day. Niet. Niet, How that close warehouse on the dock smelled of low-tide and horses ! Phew ! my head swims now, as I recall it. It was a heathen, a savage and uncivilised, a bureaucratical, tyrannical America I found to my sorrow. America quite the perfect person for- sooth to throw stones at poor Russia! Certainly we do not treat prisoners worse in Russia than the Goddess of Liberty treats the arriving sea pas- senger in America. So, we sat on boxes of merchandise "in the foul etape," as their writers always speak of Sibe- rian prisons. We were hungry, without food or drink, and could not pass the cordon of guards to seek it outside; and Anna stood for two hours AMERICA 11 in the queue of convicts waiting to draw a number for a customs officer to search our luggage. Heavens ! how much better they do it in Wirballen and Eydtkunen on our frontier ! and at Odessa ! Constantinople even would blush to have such a douane. In the long hours on this ill-smelling, stifling wharf, the passengers greedily seized the news- papers, and again their laughter was for Russia's misfortunes in war. Nothing was lacking to make me completely miserable. But, at last, an official came toward me with a letter, followed by a man who was plainly a Russian from the toes of his boots to his blonde-white hair. "Lady, are you Mrs. Van Till? because this man from the Russian Consulate has been hunting you all over the docks." And then our troubles ended, for the Consul's clerk knew how to manage the dreadful Americans. I don't know how much he had to pay in fees and tips to get us off ; but anyhow, he soon had our boxes corded and sealed, and we crossed by a ferry to the city, and went to a mammoth hotel a skyscraper, they call it. From my win- dows on the fifteenth floor, I looked out to other fifteen- and twenty-story buildings in every direc- tion. The sea breeze blew in my face and there was no sound from the street far below. The Consul came and dined with me. He had been cabled his instructions from Petersburg, and 12 had sent his man to meet me; and he had taken passage for me on a fast ship, which was to cross the Pacific in twelve days ! Think of that ! after the twenty-eight days we spent in crossing to San Francisco, such a little while ago. The war has given the Consul much work to do and keeps him in town, and even the Embassy is tied fast at the capital for the summer. The news- papers in New York were full of praises of Japan, and the same absurd stories about Russia that always fill English newspapers. It is still a mystery why the American people have so sud- denly forgotten the long traditional friendship between our two countries, and the gratitude they owed us, turned from us, and lost their heads so completely over the Japanese. It is a sort of insanity just now, and ever since the Japanese have won a victory over that silly Zakaroff on the Yalu River, the Americans seem to think Japan has conquered all creation, for all time. One must wait until events bring them to their senses; and make them quite ashamed of themselves too, I should think. When I came to leave New York, a company of seventy Chinese was marched into the station, counted off like convicts, and locked into a car. "This is the land of freedom, you know," said the Consul, "where they do not punish the Jews, no matter what they do. These Chinese are rich AMERICA 13 merchants going to China and intending to return to America. They count them, lock them up, and guard them, exactly as we do convicts going to Siberia. Some day, the Chinese may get tired of their treatment and make an uprising. Then the Americans will 'get busy,' as they say, and mend their manners." I should think so, for the great republic is by no means the paradise we hear about in Europe. One encounter with pure Liberty will do for me. I long to meet again certain Americans who have made me blush for poor Russia. I shall make any one's salon a battle ground, if I can but meet again some of the American critics who taunted me in Rome. And that M. Georges Kennan ! Ah ! The consul bade me good-bye as to one setting sail for the unknown. I felt like M. Andre start- ing on his air-ship. "We cannot send word ahead, or do any more for you now. Your own tact and sense must direct you. Go at once to the French Minister in Tokyo, and he will do what he can. Drop Russian speech from this hour ; and, as your name is so German, and your maid has West- phalia printed on her face, you can go without suspicion. But remember, there are always spies and informers about and you must be discreet. God be with you." And then I lost all touch with all Russia, and really embarked for the unknown. On shipboard, while we were crossing the At- 14 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS lantic, I had written fully to every one and warned each one to be careful of what he put in letters to me. In New York, Anna washed every European sign and hotel label from our boxes. The four days on the train went by very quickly, and we saw a rich, contented, prosperous country day after day. Only once on the far western plains did we see a soldier in uniform, a suggestion of war; but there were bulletins at the railway stations, and every one grinned at fresh discom- fitures and defeats for Russia. The passengers on the ship were few and uninteresting; it was cold and foggy ; and I spent the time in my deck cabin, and tried to picture the landing in Japan. Tuesday, July 19th. It was a hot, steamy, rainy morning when we anchored at Yokohama, and we quickly went ashore to the hotel and asked for rooms. I wrote my name with hesitation in the visitors' book, the innkeeper said: "This way, Madame," turned into a little room, and closed the door. In alarm, I felt that Japanese fetters were about to be put upon me, when he lifted his hand and said: "Oh! the Princess Sophia! Princess Sophia! My God! What are you doing here, Madame la Princesse? Go back to the ship. Quick! Quick! It is too dangerous, too dangerous. You cannot spy here. AMERICA 15 Go quick. I cannot let you stop. I cannot go with you. It is too dangerous." As he clasped his hands again, I recognised D 's old steward, one who came to my rescue many times in my Tokyo days, and once really saved my life, when Paul was more drunk and more brutal than usual. This steward at the Legation house was the only one to whom I could appeal and speak openly, and I always suspected that he was told off by D to keep an eye on the No. 2 house, and to save me, if necessary. It was this faithful M who concealed Paul's many disappearances ; who found him drowned in the villa lakelet in the distant quarter across the river ; and who closed my house for me, and got me away from Japan. All of that past life came before me in successive scenes, like a panorama. I stood quite speechless with all that the sudden appearance of M brought before me. M now owns the large foreign hotel, and, sending Anna into the breakfast room, he himself served me in a private room, as the boy passed in the dishes. All my troubles were truly ended. Ministers and consuls could not advise nor do more for me than this faithful M , who knew every link in the long diplomatic chain of events leading up to the war's beginning. He had seen the Rosens and Princess Kitty go away; and he had watched the flag hauled down from the Consulate. 16 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS He knew, too, all about the arrangements with the French Legation in Tokyo. That good soul took me to the bank and got me money on my London letter. "Keep your English notes and gold," he advised, "for we cannot know what may happen. Keep enough of them always with you to pay to get you away, if you have to escape suddenly from Japan." He took me to Tokyo, and we saw the French Minister, who at last gave me word of Vladimir, but how terrible. "He is on the hospital list, you see," he said, show- ing me the paper. "He arrived from Dalny only a week ago, and the Consul in Kobe came back from Matsuyama the day before yesterday, and sends me these reports. He has without doubt seen him, and after a few days you might go to Kobe and see the Consul !" "After a few days ! Mon Dieu! No ! at once, to-day, by my same steamer ! It goes to Kobe." "But, Madame, I have not any permit for you to see your husband yet. You must apply for it." "But, your Excellency, I do not need any permit to see your Consul. He has seen my husband. He can tell me of him. Ah ! how could I wait here an hour ? No ! No ! It is cruel to stop me now. Let me go to Kobe and wait there. It is nearer. Let me go." The Minister drew his shoulders a little, and then had me write an appeal to the Minister of AMERICA 17 War to be permitted to visit my husband in the hospital of the prisoners' quarters at Matsuyama, and that I might be permitted also to take up my residence at Matsuyama, and have frequent access to the hospital. "They will grant it. Oh, yes. I am quite sure of it. Be quite tranquil," he said. All this took time, and we drove rapidly back to the station, past a long open park space beside the moat, now bare of its lotus plants, in a glare of light and heat insupportable. The thought of Vladimir, wounded and in a prison hospital, drove everything from my mind, and I but vaguely re- member what was said and done in the Chancery, nor did I notice what we passed as we hastened for our returning train. Great buildings, as in a European capital, stretched along vast park spaces; and I remember seeing, as if in a dream, as if in a mirage in the noon heat waves, the quaint, little, white towers perched high on the castle walls. "Look !" said M , who rode facing me. And there was the familiar old Legation building, with its loggiaed verandah, the steep, green garden, the rustic parasol of a summer house at the angle of the compound overlooking the old parade ground. How often did we stand there laughing until weak at the drill of the would-be army, the little manikin caricatures of European troops going through goose-step marches ! I cannot yet 18 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS understand or find the clue to the miraculous creation of the formidable army they must really have in the field, when I remember the travesty of manoeuvres that used to take place on the Hibiya parade ground. Our old Legation was shuttered and silent, the flagstaff bare, the grille closed, and a policeman in a white uniform sat in a tiny sentry box by the momban's house. It was a sad sight. Oh! War! War! how cruel and unnecessary are the sufferings you bring in your train! Oh ! Bezobrazoff ! Bezobrazoff ! What have you not brought down upon the hapless sovereign who trusted you? And upon his innocent subjects! All Vladimir's worst forebodings, since the day he followed the timid Nicholas in Alexander's funeral train, have more than come true. To think that Russia, with her great destiny, should come to this ! Halted in her great march to the Pacific by these puny people ! CHAPTER III JAPAN Sunday, July 24th. TT was late in the afternoon before we could get ashore at Kobe and reach the French Con- sulate. The tri-colour of la Republique seemed as dear to me as our own, as it lifted now and then in the faint south wind that blew up the Inland Sea. My own excitement must have moved the door-man, for he abruptly ushered me into the cabinet where the Consul was quietly writing at a desk. "Madame?" said the Consul, rising to bow and receiving my card inquiringly. But I could not command my voice, and at last he spoke. "Well! I see it is Madame von Theill, for whom M. le Colonel has asked at Matsuyama. I had the pleasure to meet him but a few days ago. He is improving, they say, since his arrival, and since he learned that you were coming from Russia. It is a very long journey that you have made. You must telegraph him now from Kobe." "I have, I have. But what what tell, tell me quickly the news of him, I implore you." 19 20 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS "Calm yourself, Madame. He is ill, he will re- cover. He has suffered much, but he is safely in the best hands now. A few wounds, some flesh wounds, you know. Many bandages and all that, but he is not in the quarter of the serious cases. His arm does not permit him to write, but he talks with much spirit, and he has begged me to charge myself with you when you shall have arrived in Kobe. "Oh ! Yes ! You can go to Matsuyama and live there near him, and they will let you visit him each day. But first you must have a permit from the Minister of War. Have you such? No? Then you must wait until it arrives, and in the meantime you can arrange for your menage in Matsuyama. There are no foreign hotels there, in fact no good tea houses. There is a little com- munity of American Protestant missionaries, and they will aid you." I told how M was arranging for a courier- boy and cook, and that my maid was a bonne a toute faire herself, along with her many talents, and I begged to go at once. "But, be tranquil, Madame. First, the per- mission. Then the steamer which will go from Kobe to the ports of lyo province. There will be one on Monday evening, and for that you must wait. It is only five days, and you can send a telegram, and get direct answer from M. le JAPAN 21 Colonel. Ah ! what pleasure for all those poor exiles to have you arrive ! It will be a day of fete in Matsuyama for them to see a countrywoman again." And then I dragged through long days, and longer nights, of suffocating heat. But, if it was hot for me in the foreign hotel, with all the accustomed comforts of Europe, what could it be for my poor sufferer so far away at the end of the Inland Sea? Each morning I went to the Consulate to ask if the permission had come. Each morning, I sent a telegram to Vladimir, bought more stores anpl supplies. After all that Vladimir has endured in Manchuria, and suffered since, no amount of luxury can atone. It seemed a good promise for other agrements of civilisation, when the Consul told me I need not take lamps, since they had the electric light in Matsuyama. It seemed hard to believe that such a little place on the map, away down in the prov- inces of Shikoku Island, could be entirely up to date like that. I was so dazed, so distracted that brief morning in Tokyo, that I hardly noticed Japan, the new Japan this modern Japan that has come up like magic in the years of my absence. There are the same bare-legged coolies in mushroom hats running their jinrikishas as before, but they run beside electric trams now; and we saw more carriages 22 AS THE HAGUE ORDAINS on the street those few hours in Tokyo than