128         The Russian Navy in the
of which it does not appear to have, as far as I have been able to judge, a very clear notion. Your objections will not, therefore, prevent me from continuing, as long as my strength permits, the task which I have undertaken and which I hold to be indispensable, because the Russian public is ill-informed on the war, and especially so on the naval operations which are of such vital importance for us! In revealing all the facts which I have published in this way I do not open the eyes of the Japanese, but only those of my fellow-countrymen.
We have wished not to think of this war, and even now we only reluctantly believe in its existence. What harm is there, I ask, in discussing our want of foresight and its fatal effects, since they are now universally known ?
The Japanese knew our real position in advance, and fully, too, and in its most minute details. They knew that it was in their interest to commence hostilities. And to-day they are reaping the benefit of their wise forethought.
If we had been able to have revealed our defects  earlier,   and  to  have  made them