For a symmetric cone Ω we compute its Riemannian distance in terms of the singular values of a generalized cross-ratio and prove that the semigroup of the compressions of Ω decreases the compounds distance. §1. Introduction Let Sp(m, R) be the real symplectic group acting on the Siegel upper half plane T ΩSym of complex symmetric matrices with positive definite imaginary part via the rational transformationsLet Ω Sym be the set of real positive definite symmetric matrices. We can view it as the Riemannian symmetric space GL(m, R)/O(m). C. L. Siegel's study of the symplectic geometry [16] allows one to get an explicit formula for the geodesic distance in Ω Sym associated with the GL(m, R) invariant Riemannian metric, which coincides with the Euclidean arc length on the logarithms of