PREFACE.
The
object
of this
little
book is to
give
a
succinct account
of the
progress
of the war between
Japan
and China
up
to the
time
of
its
compilation.
No
one
can be more
sensible than
the
compiler,
of the defects
of a
work of
this kind.
In
writing
of
a war
still
in
progress,
we cannot
grasp
the true
proportion
of its
events,
as
we
are
liable to be
dazzled
by
brilliant achievements
and
to
attach to
them a
greater
importance
than to
those
which,
though
no
less vital to
the
accomplishment
of
the
object
of
the
war,
fail
to
attract
public
attention
through
absence
'
of
stirring
victories.
Such,
for
instance,
are
the
operations
in
North
Manchuria,
for
though
the retention of
positions
like
Haiching
and
Funghwang-
ching
will afterwards be found
to
have
been as
indispensable
towards a successful termination
of
the war as the
capture
of
Port Arthur or
Wei-hai-wei,
we are more
fascinated
by
the
brillancy
of the
Japanese
victories
at
those fortresses than
by
the
stubborn resistance
offered
unflinchingly
to inclement climate and
harassing
armies.
While the size of
this work frees
it
from the
perplexity
which would
arise
in
a
more
complete
history
from the
very
multitude
of
newspaper
reports,
this
same
compactness
exposes
it to
the sin of
omission as
regards
those
events,
the
important
consequences
of
which we do
not at
present suspect.
While
recognising
this
fatal want
of
historical
perspective,
the
compiler
was
led
to
produce
the
present
work
with
the
sole
object
of
briefly
recounting
the
principal
events
of
the
war,
a
survey
of
which is
complicated
by
the
operations
of the
Japanese
armies
in
divers directions. The
present
work,
therefore,
makes
no claim
beyond
facilitating
this
survey.
M217215