UNREADINESS AT SEA               59
greater clearness, to the outbreak of hostilities, and on the 6th Mr. Kurino had made a communication which left no possible doubt of the intentions of Japan. This communication was frank and explicit; it was published in the Official Messenger on the 6th, and the Japanese Minister then withdrew. The only complaint open to Russia to make is that Mr. Kurino did not name the point of attack and the precise hour at which operations would begin. This is a convention of peace manoeuvres, but it is not war. Still nothing was changed, no orders were sent, and, with an insouciance as fatal as incomprehensible, the Colossus waited to be struck. It had not long to wait. The seizure of the initiative by Japan is a matter that more directly concerns the statesman than the fighting services. It is the readiness of Japan and the decision to take rapid action that stands out as an example for us to follow.
A surprise in operations on land can rarely, if ever, affect more than a part of the army attacked, since national armies extend over a large expanse of country, and the final result of the campaign is not necessarily much affected by the fate of a fraction of the army of operations. At sea things are different, and five minutes of negligence before hostilities commence can make all the difference between the gain or loss of the command of the sea. A few days ago the Russian Pacific squadron, containing most of the best Russian battleships afloat, although slightly weaker than its enemy, in the proportion of eleven to fourteen, could still aspire, by audacity and hard fighting, to win a great victory or to perish gloriously. Now it is partially a wreck, its best ships lying crippled upon the mud and rocks of Port Arthur, others sunk, burnt, damaged, or destroyed. It has not won a victory, it has not sunk an enemy's ship, and, the Variag apart, it has not perished gloriously.
Appalling is the result and far-reaching the effect of unreadiness at sea. " He who has only land troops fights only with one hand; he who has a fleet as well