THE WAR IS THE FAR EAST.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LIV, Issue 2854, 8 March 1904, Page 2

THE WAR IS THE FAR EAST.

Fifty-three foreign newspaper correspondents were allowed to accompany the Japanese forces, including 29 English and 17 American.

The Japanese Premier states that corres , pondents will not be permitted to proceed to the front until the firet heavy land battle has been fought.

General Dragomiroff, the ex Governor of Warsaw, has advised the Cz*r to withdraw the fleet and army from Port Arthur. While the adviae was not accepted, there is a concensus of military cpinion that Admiral Alfcxeieff blundered bludly, and is responsible for the loss of the Russian fleet,.

Twentyfiva hundred Japanese lauded without artillery at Song Ching, oo PlaliS'n Bay, and started for Southern Manchuria.

A British gunboat has been ordered to Song Chine; to fotcli the miesionuires and their families.

Nine Japanese transports have landed fifteen thousand troops at Chinampho. They were transferred to Ping Yang. The impression prevails thab there are three Japanese expeditionary forces moving respectively upon Port Arthur, Vladivostock and the Yalu.

Intense eeoreoy ia maintained in regard fee the plans, whiuh are known only to the Mikado, the Minister of War, and the highest staff officers.

The Russians ars entrenching at Anting, where they have fourteen guns. Geneial Inouye, with Korea's oonseut, has proclaimed martial l\w in Seoul,

The " Stmdard'e " Tientsin correspondent, states that th« Russians are strongly forti , fying plac s south of Mukden, and that thousands of unpaid ceolies are working day and night on the ramparls »n I s-atre.'ich ments, under harsh treatment.

The '• Times " Tokio c statee that two kilometres of the Kh'aibinNikolek railway, leading t>. Vladivostok, have been destroyed.

A Russian torpedo boat collided with and sank an Egyptian revenue cutter. The crew was resetted. 'Ihe. Canal will be blocked for at least a day. Ttie orufeer Oslabya and torpedo boat Saratoff are moored at the scp'u of the coilinion. The Marquis of Landsdowne, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in a letter in reply to inquiries from the Hull Corporation, stated that) ooal for Ruseia and Japan will fee considered contraband of war. A hundred and fifty thousand tons of coal for the Far Baati, ordered in February, is being shipped from Cardiff. Japan has ordered an additional seventy thousand tons to be shipped during March and April round the Cape. Shippers proposed to clear for Hong Kong, intending to confine the risk to between Hong Kong and Japanese ports. In the House of Commons, Mr A. H, Lee, Civil Lord of the Admiralty, referring to the lesson of the Far Bast, said tho unfortunate position of the Russian fleet

o the lack of ad-.qu.ue f iC [\ ltiea for she !ter. ;Sn; e sSe e : nd protecti °g ™ w p* feeb h h^ Bri i tißh military au "honties in TienT mei'fn 6POr, r d ,he editor of «'■ " Ghiba to the S' ? ak,n ß dißparagine references Arthnr TrT\ ■ ttdm «"tratioa of Port Arthur ard Vladivoatock thfh fZfS! "misters a«i Cairo decided thab from the 12bh iaet., belligerents would XL RF 1W B ed t0 eßCort ofpturS priM through the Suez Canal or into Beymi«n be r una O bl.T terß, HeMCe the R «™ I will be unable to convey to Rmeia for aHjudr rt n£n? D £ Pf Z33 fr,,m ,he except Z A h ° F epe - Thi * deoiuon contributed towards the recent release of the British colliers captured by R us *i an p. lhe Council protests thab the Russian warships are exceeding the tirr.e embodied m fcgypts Dentraliry rt-gulfttione. lhe minority p , lt yin Seoul, di.eatiefied with the Japanese alliance, vainly tried to dynamite the house of the Korean MiLUte of Foreign Affairs. The Japanese fleet h >s not been lighted at Port Arthur for a week. The Rusro Chinese Bank at Nfuchwarg is removing to Mukden. The women and children are also fleeing, and the Baesian

troops are preparine to fall b.ck inland, to defer d the railway, recognising the impossibility of defending the port. The Japanese war loan his been covered six fold.

Tir.e Bn-jsian Press ia urging the Govern* to wze the Russian person of the IndoEuropean telegraph line, contending that it is used to assist Japan, The Governor of Finland, addressing the garrison at Svetbirg, enlogisirg the *pV'sacrifice of the army, i-nited volunteers fjr (he front. There waa no response, though the call was repeated. The Governor angrily directed, as a punishment to the garrison, ihe selfcbion of the number required for service in the Far East. Similar scenes -.00 , cured at other Finnieh garrisons. Many protested against compulsory transport to the Fur East, and even had to be forced "into the railway carriages. Rear-Admira Wirinns, whose flagship Iβ the Oslabya, has been ordered to the Red Sea, to capture vessels carrying contraband of war. and to watch the movements of war ships.

Russia is pushing forward the construction of submarines. The Newsky shipbuilding yards are hurriedly baildlng ten of the English pattern. The Russians process to interpret the Japanesß attack on Port Arthur as a fetrata* gem to divert attention from operations in the directions of the Yalu River, and the landing of troops at Poasieb Bay is inter , preted as a desire to prevent Russian troops from Vladivostok proceeding to Yalu. Advices from Tokio, received in New York, state that two vessels carrying Australian ooal, also Britieh, Norwegian and German vessels, laden with coal and provieionp, pissed through the Tsugaru Btraits, between the islands of Yezo and Nippon, and reached Vladivostock unmolested. The Japanese Welsh coal supply is suffioient for the torpedo destroyers for a year. Reuter'e Agency reports that sixty Ameri , cans have been sent to guard the American gold mines at Unsall, thirty miles north of Anju.

The Russian equadron left Vladivostock on February 20. and is cruising in northern waters In the hope of capturing merchantmen.

Numbers of revolutionary proclamations are being circulated in Russian cities exhort' ing the public to promote popular risings while the majority of the troops are abeent in the Far East.