PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 96, 20 October 1904, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

I ♦ The Titanic struggle in Manchuria, is still being waged with unabated fierceness, though as heavy rains have fallen, weariness and the difficulty of transport may well produce a short lull in the frightful contest. It is understood at Tokio that another great battle has begun, the centres being engaged. This seems to give colour to i&ue statement 'of yesterday that Kodzu had been heavily attacked, while the report to-day that Kuropatkin has transferred a portion of his forces from west .to east looks like a v concentration upon Nodzu's front. Yet a later message sent from Tokio yesterday states that owing to absence of news from the front it is believed that "inactivity has followed upon Kuropatkin's abortive assaults to cover his withdrawal to the Hun River." It is difficult, indeed impossible, to reach any just appreciation of the situation through the contradictory evidence of the opposing sides, and already the Russian successes chronicled yesterday as reported from Mukden and Kharbin are seriously discounted. The reported driving in of j Nodzu on the centre it aow appears has j nob been mentioned in the official despatches, and The Time 3 surmises that the success was manufactured for home consumption. So^ perhaps, is the report ( of the Russian journal, wired to-day, 1 that the Russians have re-occupied Shaho station. If true, Kuropatkin has his army well in hand, and is thrusting his enemy backward. Twenty thousand fresh troops are said to have reached him from Kirbin, but why from thence does not appear. Oyama officially advises a success by Kurtfki on Sunday, apparently some importance ; confirms the disaster to Yamadi's detachment, and mentions as part of Monday's fighting various fierce counter-attacks along the whole line, the Russians being "repulsed entirely, leaving a great number of dead." He adds that the enemy in front of the Huii River has been "enormously reinforced," especially in front of Nodzu. The date of the report is not given, but it will be noted that it closes with events of Monday. A general view of the situation seems to show that the Russians have rallied, and are slowly pushing the enemy backward with great determination. Reinforcements appear to be steadily coming forward from Kharbin, and Oyama will probably have to counterbalance these by further withdrawals from Port Arthur. Stoessel and his gallant garrison, though so far away, are a great factor in these Manchurian battles. Kuropatkin has telegraphed to the Tsar that the Russians will "conqiier or die," and there has been gr\m and ghaetly proof that he means it.