PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1904, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

There is at time of writing but one solitary item of frosh news from Port Arthur to-day, but it may piove of great importance It kt stated that the Nuwhin and the Kaßuga, the modern cruisers purchasod bx Jaftan from tho Argentina

Govcrnnivnt, have bombarded and silenced tho furts on Golden Hill. Reference to our recently -published plan of Port Arthur will «how the position of Golden Hill, which aentinels (he eastern shore nf the entrance- to the harbour. Hero are mounted, in a group of several forts, eixty guns, all of heavy calibre. Tliis arlnament hn« hitherto kept the fleet of Togo at a respectful distance, and if it be true that they have been eilenced, and effectively, the name ships will be abb to get within range, and deal similarly with the forts on the opposite side of tho channel — on the tongue of lund known as the "J'igor's Tail" Tlio probability is, however, that Golden Hill is husbanding its ammunition, and that when there is sufficient occasion it will bark, and bite 100, ac of old. If tho Japs do not succeed in storming the fortress, they must uold it in a state of siege. In that event it will become a question of supplies, and on this point reports continue contradictory. Some- of tho American papers declare that «yen with a passive siege the fortress cannot hold out beyond November, while at Chefoo recently it was reported that ammunition was plentiful, and at the rate of umj then existing would outlast the provisions, of which there was sufficient .to servo tho fortress for a year. In our view the place ennnot hold out for many more days, ond* if it be true that Kuropatkin is moving north, that fact will hasten its fall. The Shanghai incident has closed satisfactorily, the Tsar having ordered his Consul to disarm the Askold nnd GrosoYoi, thus enabling China tb "mvc f«ce." From Manchuria, where nearly lialf a million armed men are waiting for the signal to slay, there comes no word. That tho world boyond the actual theutrc of war should bo kept tto completely in the dark is extraordinary.