[RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.]

The Russo-Japanese War. Reports from British officers attached to the Japanese and Russian forces in the field.

London, printed for his Majesty’s Stationery Office by Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1908. 3 vols, 8vo (240 x 150 mm), pp. xxiv, 682, [6, advertisements]; xxiii, [i, blank], 695, [1, blank], [6, advertisements]; vii, [i, blank], 309, [3, blanks], [6, advertisements], with 45 plates (11 in pocket inside back cover of vol. III); without the separate map portfolios for vols I and II; titles and pink advertisement leaves browned; original green cloth; slightly rubbed but a very good set. First edition of a difficult work to find. This collection of British officers’ reports is one of the most valuable eyewitness accounts of the Russo-Japanese War. The first volume consists of reports, printed by permission of the Japanese General Staff, ‘from the Japanese side, with the period of hostilities up to, and including, the battle of the Sha Ho’ (I p. iv). Vol. II ‘contains the reports upon the operations of the Japanese forces engaged at the battle of Hei-kou-tai, those of the First, Second and Third Japanese Armies at the battle of Mukden, and the operations of the Third Japanese Army at Port Arthur. A number of papers dealing with minor operations, tactics and technical matters are also included’ (II p. iv). Vol. III includes the reports of those British officers attached to the Russian forces.Innovations in warfare made this conflict more like the two world wars of the twentieth century than any that had ever preceded it. Armies for the first time consisted of very large forces, all employing breech-loading weapons, quick firing guns, and machine-guns. Fleets were made up entirely of metal ships, armoured and steam propelled, not only with improved weaponry but with electric lighting, radio, searchlights, and hydraulic motors enabling guns to be turned or elevated mechanically. Military and naval staffs of the industrialised nations, anxious to discover whether modern war fulfilled their expectations, appointed officers to accompany the forces of both the belligerents. These, ‘with their professional experience, are a useful corrective to the starry-eyed commentaries by journalists and others’ (Westwood, Russia against Japan p. 173).Britain was particularly interested in the Russo-Japanese War, maintaining a total of 29 military and naval observers, including three lieutenant-generals, with the Japanese and five with the Russian forces. Their experiences and observations, though somewhat biased, are still considered one of the most accurate and useful sources for an understanding of the conflict. Despite remaining officially neutral, Britain supported Japan against her rival, Russia. Prior to the war, the latter, with the progress of the Trans-Siberian railway, ‘was for the first time reaching the brink of becoming capable of military power projection on to China’s frontier. Even if Russia had no policy of territorial annexation in China, Britain was no longer able – by virtue of her naval supremacy – to guarantee China’s independence as an “open door” but British-dominated market. At the same time, other industrializing powers – Japan, Germany, France, and the USA – now made themselves increasingly present in China. China’s defeat in the war with Japan (1894–5) further weakened her regime. The prospect of the country’s political disintegration now appeared imminent, heightening inter-power competition, because a collapse of indigenous authority would most probably mean partition, in which no power could afford to be left behind. Although all the powers preferred a united and open Chinese market, each increased its encroachments on China’s sovereignty, thereby triggering the process of partition. Regarded as an almost foregone conclusion in the closing years of the nineteenth century, partition was averted after Japan removed the threat of a Russian advance by her victory in Manchuria (1904–5)’ (Gat, War in human civilization p. 554). But the Russo-Japanese War not only significantly altered the international balance of power, it also propelled Japan onto the world stage as a nation to be reckoned with, one which would be a full-fledged member of the European alliance system by the outbreak of the First World War.

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• libraire: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)