PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 102, 27 October 1904, Page 4

PR OGRESS OF THE WAR.

Notwithstanding the recent assurance from Tokio that the special corresi)ondents of English journals would be permitted to go to the front, the outside world still waits in vain for definite news of the progress of the war. The correspondents may be there, but the censor, as of old, does not permit any knowledge of the actual situation to leak out. Today we learn, according to the New York Herald, that the Russians at Shalio are making some headway southward, and that orders have been given from headquarters that Port Arthur must be reached at any price. It is a forlorn hope, according to all appearances, and put forward, it may be assumed, to inspire the troops to extraordinary effort. The nearest point to their objective they are likely to reach will be the right bank of the Taitse, immediately north of Liaoyang, and even that short march southward will only be accomplished at tremendous sacrifice. This they know, for we are told that the hospitals at Khar-bin are being cleared for reception of the wounded from the next battlefield, now in sight. The transport of those now in hospital westward along the Trans-

Siberian railway in bitter cold will be a pitiful and paikiful business that must in many cases greatly retard recovery. And apparently- there are thousands of injured men who have not yet reached the Russian base, for it is cabled to-day that ! correspondents describe an endless line of Russian wounded crawling along the roads leading to Mukden. This cannot be an inspiring sight to their comrades moving to the front, and suggests a lack of transport facilities that must greatly impede the operations of the arnvy. For the second time we hear of an Imperial ukase appointing Kuropatkin Commander-in-Ohief, Alexieff retaining the Viceroyship. The change should strengthen the Russian position. A tragic story comes from Tokio of the beating to death of a Japanese Admiral who proved a traitor in tie worst sense. If guilty, he deserved to die a shameful death, but the manner of his execution seems to throw a lurid sidelight upon Japanese character.