The Final Scene at Port Arthur.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXII, Issue 6486, 3 February 1905, Page 3

The Final Scene at Port Arthur.

Accounts by the Mail Steamer.

K.eceived Feb. 3, 10.40 a.m Fre mantle, Feb. 3 The Ortona's files give an interesting account of the final scene at Port Arthur. Rtoessel sent under a flag of truce a message stating that he considered further resistance useless, and asking Nogi to appoint commissioners to meet him. A conference took place m the little Chinese hamlet of Suesai, two miles from Port Arthur. General Ijichi and Colonel ■Keiss deliberated m a tiuy thatched cottage. Thrice the representatives separated and went to the respective tents before the document was ready for despatch to StoesFel. The conference was a long one. There was no parade of formality beyond the posting of a single sentry near the entrance to the compound where the cottage was. A strange stillness Veigned m the belligerent lines, broken by an occasional detonation telling of the destruction of the fl3et m the harbour. Finally, when dusk.set m, Stoessel signed the document, and telegraphed to inform his Imperial master of the course he had been forced to take. The Conference broke up after the envoys of both sides had dined together. Their final success was not quickly realised by the Japs, and for a while nothing seemed to interfere m the usual routine. The feeling was one of relief rather than exultation. When a telephone message informed the investing army that .their taak was accomplished this almost weird self-control was m a measure relaxed. " Banzais " echoed through the camp, and Bengal lights flared on the captured ridges, and lit up the darkness of the night, while the bivouac fires for the first time were allowed to blaze up, there being no need any longer for concealment of their positions. Many Russian soldiers came out of the fortress, and joined the Japanese round their camp fires, and exchanged their national beverage vodka for the Japanese sake.-