PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 150, 25 June 1904, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

« . News from the front to-day is of the mast meagre kind, and this probably means tllut heavy fighting aud important movements are in progress. The fate of Stuckelberg and his army ore &till shrouded in obscurity, and there is no sign from Poit Arthur of the effect of tho late attack by sea aud land. Tho recent re-« pcrta of heavy lighting, we ure told, are evidently ba&ed on constant skirmishing in the vicinity of the Siuyen-Haicheug-road. French accounts, however, describe sanguinary lighting since Monday along a front of 40 kilometres, with varying fortune and the result still undecided. According to Russian accounts, Kuroki, Oko, and Nodzu, with 150,000 men, aro making a vigorous combined movement against Kuroputkin'H positions from Kaipiug to Liaoyang, the Japanese front extending, crescent shape, for 150 miles, from 25 miles south of Kaiping to beyond Moticnling. (Sec Post map.) In our. issue of 20lh hist, will be found a statemeat of the numerical strength of all armies in the field, from which it will bo seen that the Japanese disposition of troops given above still leaves « full army corps for investment of Port Arthur, and 2b,000 men for guard of communications on the peninsula. The" Russians would appear at this distance to bo both outnumbered and outgeneraled, with tho certainty that they most be compelled to fight. What tho Russians thought of their opponents but a few weeks ago may be gathered from the following remarks of the military correspondent of The Times, published on 2nd May: "Colonel Gadke (German military correspondent), whose letters from Kharbin contain tho best information we have yet received concerning the Ru&sjan. army, does not grow more optimistic concerning the fortunes of his Russian hosts as time wears on. He declares, on the contrarythat the actual beginning of the campaign, is still remote, and slates in one of Ins last letters that the Russian army will bo occupied for weeks, or probably for months, in its mobilisation aud preparations. The German: and Austria?* military attaches with the Russian army have also been credited with the belief that serious operations would not begin before the end of August. That hiss been tho parrot cry from th« Russian side, and it has doubtless corresponded with Russian desires. These forecasts ar« very illuminating, but one does not quite sco where the Japanese army cornea in. The two armies have been* in contact for somo time, and nothing but a timely retreat could have prevented the serious col« hsion which has now (battle of Yalu) occurred. Considering tho large force Russia has assembled south of Mukden, and tho contempt with which tho Russian army professes to regard its enemy it was always a matter of grave doubt'whether General Kuropatkin would have been abla to refuse battle, even though his better judgment had been against tighthiff until a larger army wns arsPinbled. Tho Russian army is very conßdent, and rates its adversary very low. Time, and thoresult of yesterday's battle, will show whether this confidence is justified, but it was never to have been expected tliafc the Lussmns would give way without A battle. .