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302 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
making use of these advantages, and with soldiers
doing their duty unflinchingly and intelligently.
It is in the moral and physical qualities of the
men, and still more in the high standing, the
thorough training, and the great capability of the
officers, that the real strength of the Japanese
army is to be found.
Look at a company of Japanese infantry march-
ing past. The men, small, but well set up, are all
practically of the same height and the same build ;
they all have black hair, split eyes, round heads,
most of them snub noses, protruding cheek-
bones and square jaws. They all resemble each
other in face and figure, one sees that they
belong to one race which has developed certain
features, certain points common to every man to
a much more marked degree than any of the
European nations. The sight, therefore, gives
one an impression of compactness, solidity, and
regularity, as if one were looking at well-
constructed machinery, where all the many small
parts are perfectly homogeneous, and fit well
into each other.
And so it is. The Japanese army of to-day is
probably the most perfect engine of war that ever
existed. The qualities which have been most
highly developed in the Japanese race are just
those which make good warriors. Physically,
the men are strong, capable of enduring great
hardships, very alert and agile, and at the same
time as tenacious as bulldogs, with very healthy
constitutions, which permit them to live on less,
and what we would call poorer food (though
luckily for them it is undoubtedly more whole-
some) than any European army. Morally, they
are the best disciplined soldiers in the world,
very intelligent, and absolutely fearless ;
they have
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