“The first condition of progress is represented by the present activity of most nations who are sailing along evenly and with self-approval in fancied superiority. The second condition is represented by Japan, who suddenly appears as a cyclone in a smooth sea of commonplace progress.
“Japan is not only building more ships than any other power except England, but she is building _better ships in English shipyards than England herself is constructing for her own navy_. While other nations proceed by steps, Japan proceeds by leaps and bounds. What other nations are doing may be described as progress, but what Japan is doing must be termed a phenomenon. She is building:
“(1) Three 14,800-ton battleships, which are well advanced at the Armstrong Works, Thompson’s, and Thames Iron Works, respectively.
“(2) One battleship of about 10,000 tons, commencing at the Armstrong Works.
“(3) Four first-class armored cruisers of 9750 tons displacement and twenty knots speed at the Armstrong Works; one at the Vulcan Works, Stettin, Germany, and one in France.
“(4) Two 5000-ton protected cruisers of about twenty-three knots speed; one at San Francisco and one at Philadelphia.
“(5) One protected cruiser of 4300 tons and about twenty-three knots speed, at the Armstrong Works.
“(6) Four thirty-knot torpedo-boat destroyers at Yarrow’s.
“(7) Four more of similar type at Thompson’s.
“(8) Eight 90-ton torpedo boats at the Schichau Works, Elbing, Germany.
“(9) Four more of similar type at the Normand Works, France.
“(10) Three 3000-ton protected cruisers of twenty knots, three torpedo gunboats and a despatch vessel, at the Imperial Dock-yard, Yokosuka, Japan.
“(11) The programme for the current year embraces a fifth armored cruiser of the type previously described (9600 tons and twenty knots), to be built also at Yokosuka.
“This is Japan’s naval increase actually in sight. Excepting the ships building at Yokosuka, the whole programme has come under my personal observation.
“Comparison with the current progress of other powers discloses the fact that Japan is second only to England in naval activity, being ahead of France, much in advance of Germany, and vastly in the lead of Russia and the United States. It must also be borne in mind that the new Japanese fleet comprises throughout the very latest and highest types of naval architecture in every respect of force, economy, and efficiency.