KONOE strongly felt a sense of danger about the incident and proposed to take a hard-line stance against Russia and consulted with Hirobumi ITO, former Genro (elder statesman) and Aritomo YAMAGATA but they didn't accept his opinion.
これに強い危機感を抱いた近衛は政府元老の伊藤博文や山縣有朋らにロシアに対して強硬な姿勢を取るよう持ちかけたが一蹴された。