Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1904. THE WAR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12701, 9 March 1904, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1904. THE WAR.

The proceedings in the Ear East appear to be hanging lire, and the impatient person who demands an engagement every day as a relish to his breakfast is being sadly disappointed. For this there are many good reasons, of which, doubtless, the weather, is the most important. The ice is, it is true, beginning to break up, but the thaws are having a very injurious .effect on the roads, and hamper Japanese movements badly. This factor in the campaign is, indeed, reducing the advantage with which Japan started very considerably, for every week, we may presume, Russia is strengthening her position, and unless the Japanese can get to close quarters with their enemy before long the advantage in point of numbers and position may be upon the other side. In Corea the latest move has been to land a force on the East Coast at Plaskin Bay, which is about a hundred miles north of Gensan or Wonsan. The object of this movement is, no doubt, like that at Possiet Bay, further north, to take the Russian position on the Yalu river in the rear. Northern Corea is divided by a range of mountains running from Phongyang in a north-easterly direction to Possiet Bay. The Japanese having attempted first to get round by Possiet Bay without much success, perhaps, for we hear that the Russians have been fortifying Hunchun, a town which would bar their road, have now tried to cross this range and turn the position on the Yalu river from this point. The season, however, is apparently not far enough advanced to permit them to move among the hills still covered with snow.

The position at sea is still more vague. The Japanese practically control the Yellow and the Japan Seas, which make their task so much the easier: But they have not yet developed their attack either on Port Arthur to Vladivostock. The Russian fleet is said to have left the latter port. If so we may hear of a naval battle before long, in which the Japanese can hardly fail to be the victors. But it seems unlikely that the Russians would risk so unequal a contest. There is more probability that the next engagement will take place by land, but whether on the Vain or in the vicinity of Niuchwang docs not seem certain. The Russians are evidently going to play a waiting game, and will not accept battle except on their own ground. But we imagine the Japanese will not hesitate to attack them as soon as their arrangements are completed.