PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 97, 21 October 1904, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Pure exhaustion and want of food ha.ye, as anticipated, compelled the contending armies in Manchuria to pause in their wcrk of mutual slaughter. The Russians have recovered some of their lost ground, but it is claimed that their present front is fifteen miles north of their original line of battle. With so many fragmentary and contradictory statements of the losses on hoth sides it is impossible to at present appraise values with any approximation to accuracy, but it seems clear that the Russian casualties have greatly outnumbered those of their opponents, while in the crucial test of guns captured the advantage has been greatly on the side of the Japanese. The fighting, excepting for occasional artillery duels, .appears to have now ceased, with both combatants, so to speak, " sparring for wind." That the Russians are entrenching seems assurance that Kuropatkin is confident that he cam maintain his ground, that his communications are secure, and that reinforcements are coming forward steadily from I Kharbin. The Standard's con-espoadent with Kuroti reports that a Rnssiaai battalion was almost annihilated in crossing the Taitse, machine guns for the first time during the war being brought into ' play. As a set-off against this disaster, the Russian detachment under Linevitch, to the south of that river, reported as enveloped early in the battle, has escaped, retreating north-east. These troops will have a hard tune on the hills along which they must move i» rear of the entire Japanese front before they can emerge to get touch with the Russian army in the field.. Oko's casualties at Shaho are to-day put at a total of 5000. As his army bore the brunt of the battle, these numbers, if they can be relied upon, go to show that the Russian losses nave greatly exceeded those of their opponents, and that Kuropatkin's southern front is entrenching at a point nearer to Liaoyang than Mukden is splendid proof of both the courage and tenacity of his army. The rains have passed, and the weather is now cold and clear; but while the roads will be passable, we fancy the strugglo will not be renewed for some days. The Russians wSI have some difficulty in bringing up adequate supplies, and Oyama may be content to wait again in hope of the fall of Port Arthur, and ai rival at the front of Nogi's army. Today it is wired that the St. Petersburg correspondent of the New York Herald, usually well informed, states that in the. Russian capital it is expected that Port Arthur will fall in a fortnight. If that expectation is realised, a month hence Kuropatkin should be in fall retreat, but Stoessel is a gallant soldier as well as an unknown quantity.