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298 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
But the more brilliant and stubborn the defence,
the more commendable is, of course, the attack
which overcame it. What is it, then, that has
made the Japanese victorious everywhere, when
the reason cannot be found in the weakness of
their opponents ? What is it that everywhere
has made their advance so irresistible? These
questions, which naturally present themselves to
everybody who has followed the events of the
war, many have tried to answer. Some critics
have been most impressed with the excellence
of the Japanese army organization, others with
their wonderfully efficient Intelligence Depart-
ment, some are most struck with the minuteness
with which every detail has been planned and
carried out in all their operations, others have
found the solution of the question in the moral
and physical qualities of the officers and men.
All this is correct, all these factors contribute
to the excellence of the Japanese army, but some
points carry more weight than others, and there
is one which, in my eyes, outshines them all, and
more than anything else explains the success of
the Japanese in the war.
The organization of their army is formed com-
pletely on German lines, and the system has in
this war stood its first practical test admirably
it would, however, be too long to go into details
here.
As to the Intelligence Department, I under-
stand that it has been remarkably well informed
concerning everything that had reference to the
troops of the enemy, his dispositions, and the
scene of operations at the other theatres of war,
but the same cannot be said of this branch of
the service at Port Arthur. Not only were the
Japanese wrongly informed as to the strength of
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