END OF THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 250, 19 October 1904, Page 2

END OF THE WAR.

' *To the Editor.) ' leader on the above subject differs* yery. materially from that expressed by Mi-. ..G. H.- Kingswell, the Avar correspondent of the ■•London Daily Express," who holds the "opinion: that if Japan cannot., beat .Russia in.the first year .it impossible to expect Japan to win in .the second year, when Russia -will have nnmbers on her. side and time to; rectify her mistakes. In the course of an interview he points out that tire Russians are carefully concealing the fact that in point of numbers the Japs are already outnumbered, : and that with few- exceptions ho actual Russians have taken part i n the fighting. He' says the advance, army, which was then at Liaoyang, consists of Finns, Poles, Liberians and Bliriats. all- the troops are of a. vastly inferior quality. to the actual Russians, and. they .will, simply cripple the Japanese as much as they can before the real campaign with Russian .troops begins. He then describes what he saw at Lake Baikal. '"With my own eyes," he says, "I was at>Je to account for an average of 4100-troops Crossing tUe-Lake daily,", and he has it. on the .word of an Englishman who liad to assist in their transport that upwards of-310.000 ; Russian troops crossed tbe.lake between February Bth and July 20th, so that.by "next spring not one but two armies will be operating against the Japanese,, arid if the past Is any guide the Russians should be able to more than hold their own against any combination that Japan muster to lier aid. The Japs have evidently made the same kind of mistake that the Boers did, viz., hovering around Port Arthur, as they (the Boers) did around Ladysmitli. The Japanese have allowed Kuropatkin to gather too large a force around him, the result being that when they struck home, as they thought, be, unknown to theni, was in a position to strike a, counter blow that must have fairly staggered the Japanese, for they have not moved after Kuropatkin for over a month; whereas, under the circumstances, they should • have chased him, and by a series of rearguard actions done untold damage to the Russians. Then, again, Japan is losing enormous numbers of her best troops around Port Arthur, a position which, I think, is overestimated by •' the Japanese. China, in the event of its capture, will not dare to comply with Japan's .invitation and resume possession of Port Arthur while the •vrar is on, as that would be : distinctly breaking her neutrality; therefore Japan will, have to guard Port Arthur after the manner of the' Russians, and if the much-talked-6f fleet is worth its salt it should be. able to fix Togo's fleet as he fixed.Stark's, because the Japanese fleet by this time must be very foul, their guns are worn, and the men cannot be in the same fettle as'they were last February. In sir, I believe that Russia will, for good or evil, come out of the struggle an immensely greater Power than when she entered it, because of the splendid training her army and navy arc undergoing.—l am, etc., J.L.