ch.x.]          MODIFIED  PLAN  PROPOSED         453
then the siege of Port Arthur, also perhaps only temporarily, would have been raised, the place could have been supplied with all it required, and then our combined fleet would have acted in accordance with the progress of the land operations—that is, would either have assisted at the liberation of Port Arthur, in which besieged and besiegers would have exchanged parts, or would have left Port Arthur, once more fully supplied with provisions and munition of war, to itself, and proceeded to Vladivostok. In this case it would have had to base itself on the latter place and to endeavour to bring about a decisive battle, which would give it the command of the sea and cut off the Japanese army from its home ports.
Under our institutions this plan, which was kept secret from the officers of the Second Squadron, could hardly remain unknown to the unfriendly foreign powers. Did not the new supplementary rules to the declaration of neutrality, the celebrated "Hull-affair" and all the noise which was made on its account, look like desperate efforts to prevent this plan from being executed ? This question can be answered in the affirmative almost with certainty.
With the fall of Port Arthur (and even before), with the destruction of the First Squadron of the Pacific Fleet, this plan collapsed of itself. The Admiral worked out a second one, in his view the only practical one—viz., an immediate advance with picked ships, with Vladivostok as the objective, counting upon the temporary weakening of the Japanese Fleet, due to the exigencies of a prolonged war. Once there, since the available forces would be insufficient for a decisive blow, their object would be to open a guerilla war against the enemy's lines of communication. For this task our forces would suffice. This proposal was not approved of. It was decided to send out reinforcements to the Second Squadron, which were intended to make up for the failure of the co-operation of the First Squadron, and the "armada" retained its original task of (with the help of God) obtaining the command of the sea, that is, of beating the Japanese in a decisive battle. In vain the Admiral reported quite openly and in so many words that he looked upon the