THE CONQUERING ARMY

Evening Star, Issue 12397, 10 January 1905, Page 3

THE CONQUERING ARMY

"Appreciative" quite fails to convey, the estimate of the Japanese soldier formed by Mr Palmer, who has beeu repreMnting the London ' Chronicle' in the Far East. This is what he has to say concerning the organisation of the Mikado's force©;. — There ia a word which ha* possibly been need in every despatch sent. from the front, and that is "precision." No word can take-Jits place. Whether ia the arrangement of transport or in the accuracy of gun fire, it expresses the work of this army. We who have seen manoeuvres where hitches if not blunders ever occur, are prepared for greater ones - in actual battle. The movement on the 29th of April on the banks of the Yalu was like a field day (if you can imagine such a thing) where tho -troops had been taken over the positieES beforehand, and every detail rehearsed with the cure of a wedding ceremony. Prom the time that coolies were set to sawing bridge planks far to the rear, and the first outpost was placed and the first sod turned for a road or a gun position, the Japanese army seemed to know precisely what it had to do, and just how rb was going to do it. From the headquarters with its Japanese smile no information came,' and the barrier to inquiry was ever that of Oriental politeness The contention that » mo-

dern army cannot keep its secretg and have correspondents in the 'field was made ridiculous by the Japanese success in this respect. It can never be used

again to excuse military incompetency. The years of preparation for a set task made in ToMo {which might mean hfctle in practice) became in application and execution as pattern-like as theory itself.

The man at .the wheel may be likened to an animated statue brooding over the tatk that spreads itself out before him. *"Of Knroki, the man who directed oper&aons on the spot, we have had occasional glimpses. He is sturdily built, sinewy, with no spare flesh, and has a clean-shaven, square jaw.. In the days of waiting, when no man knew where or how we were to cross, or what forces the Russians had, and he alone knew all—quite all, staff officers knowing only each his part—one saw him walking by himself among the trees of the groves which he and his staff occupied, and again with a telescope on a. prominence, watching his own troops rather than tht positions of the enemy—watching and smoking." Overlooking his great battles, General Euzoki spent most of his time in the shade. When the Japanese raise a statue to him, says Mr Palmer, "I hope that he wall not be riding a prancing horse and swinging his sword; for he never rode a prancing horse, and never used his sword. To my recollection, I never saw him make any gesture except to salute. The sculptor had best make him squatting and looking at a map whDe he listens to his staff; and always all of his staff except the younger men (the gallopers) were at his side. He could call for information or suggestions as quickly as the head of a great business house who has a row of push buttons on his desk." Contrast with this picture that which Mr Palmer draws of the Russian officer at the battle of the Yalu. standing on the parapet, stiff as a watch-tower, mindless of fire as of raindrops. It seems to apply, does this comparison, to all ranks in the two armies: the Russians, with the dashing Skobeleff and his successor Kuropatkm as their models; the Japanese, with Kuioki, and beyond him a long line of stalwart) stoical warriors. There is, indeed, no room for heroism in a modern army. And the Japanese army is intensely modern, while the Russian lumbers along* after old ideals. The foes meet, however, on one common ground. Having emerged from death-grips, the Jap and Russ fraternise as true brothers, ami it would be difficult to say wiiich bears himself more bravely and philosophically in the hour of personal misfortune. There wag one wounded Russian still

lying on the field whose proper destiny is emigration to America. He alone of bis comrades bad not lost his humor or his faculties for occupation. When I approached him he was rolling a cigarette. At sight of an Occidental face his bbe eyes twinkled and his even white teeth, polished by black bread, showed in a smile of recognition. "Speak English?" he asked. " Yes. Do you? " I responded, eagerly. "No," said he. "Sprechen Sie Dewtsch?"

"Do jont" I ss*®4 "Nem!" Then he asked me about the French in the same way. Here was his little joke, and he boghed over it heartily, just as if he did not have a bullethole through the thick of his leg, which had bledi profusely. ■When I returned from the field this Iran Ivammtch of Kharkoff was holding a reception. Has Japanese friends had made hiro a stone rest with boughs

for a cushion... ..There,..was no need of his rolling dgarottes- now. He had a row of them and other offerings by bis right land, and h©:had been offered "drink out of water-bottiee- until he could not swallow another drop. Oae of the dotrai around him evidently spoke a "good deal of Russian. Ivan told them where b* lived,' and he laughed and joked, but forsuch an intelligent fellow he was most; stupid about the morningfs' operatione and the number of troops engaged. On the strength of bis mule, Ivan woaM get on anywhere in the world.