Chapter 98, Fair Judgment

The wheels of history rolled on, not altering their course for any individual will. The hidden hand behind the scenes had never revealed itself, and the Japanese Government could only swallow the bitter pill alone.

In a sense, whether there was a hidden hand or not, the end result would be the same. In any case, the escalation of the Japanese-Russian conflict was inevitable.

Had war not broken out, it would be because neither Japan nor Russia was ready for war. Now, both governments were tacitly buying time, each awaiting the completion of their war preparations to be the first to strike.

Perhaps to alleviate pressure on the Japanese Government or simply by coincidence, after Christmas in 1903, the London Government issued a proclamation announcing its withdrawal from the free trade system.

There was nothing surprising about it; secret negotiations between Shinra and Britain had ended in failure last week.