THE WAR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12869, 22 September 1904, Page 3

THE WAR.

BFSSIA AND JAPAN.

A LAMENT. (Received September 21, 10.55 p.m.) LONDON, September 21. Hundreds of sermons preached in Russia lament the falling away from their forefathers’ faith. The “Moscow Gazette” and other journals attribute the disisters to Count Tolstoi’s influence, and especially to bis doctrine of non-resistance to evil. They add that the true interpretation of Scripture is to fight the public enemy and forgive ouly the private foe.

WHERE WILL THE RUSSIANS STAND? (Received September 21, 10.55 p.m.) LONDON, September 21. A Reuter’s message states that there is a widespread conviction at St. Petersburg that General Kuropatkin is merely delaying Marshal Oyama's advance, and completing the defences of Tiding. Many even doubt whether there will be any decisive stand southward of Harbin.

SIBERIAN RAILWAY. (Received September 21, 10.55 p.m.) LOXDOX. September 21. The Trans-Siberian Railway was interrupted for four days. The reason is unknown. Traffic has now been resumed. PORT ARTHUR. LOXDOX, September 20.

General Stoessel reports that a daily bombardment of the fortress is proceeding, but without great activity. A Japanese battalion on the 16th instant vainly attacked the redoubt, protecting the waterworks, After being reinforced, they again attacked the redoubt, but were repulsed with great loss. A company of Russians occupying a perilous outpost position at Port Arthur, sent a message stating that they were unable to hold the position. “But you can die,” General Stoessel replied, and they died. Madame Stoessel is foremost in the Red Cross work at Port Arthur, and is constantly at the hospital caring for the wounded. The Japanese stormers at Port Arthur are now supplied with non-con-ducting wire cutters, owing to severe losses through the soldiers touching electrically charged entanglements.

THE LATEST. (Received September 21, 10.55 p.m.) LONDON, September 21. The garrison of Port Arthur are still feeding on rumours of the early arrival of the Baltic fieet. A general land and sea attack has been begun, with a view to capturing Kikwhanshan, Erliengshan and other forts to the north-east. The Japanese hold two forts 50 yards from Erliengshan, and two others further of!. The Russians are throwing a thousand shells daily at these positions, and several unsuccessful attempts have been made at night to rc-capture them.

IN MANCHURIA. LONDON, September 20. The Japanese on Sunday repulsed an attack on the heights near Yumentushan, north-east of Y’entai, inflicting on the Russians heavy losses. General Kuropatkin reports that on the 17th instant a reconnaissance showed that the Japanese strongly occupied a fortified position at Baliupatse. The Liaoyang correspondent to the “Tribnna” states that a fourth force has been landed at Niuchwang and added to General Ofcu’s extreme leftThe “Lokal Anzeiger’s” Mukden correspondent says that the Japanese formation is completely screened behind a line of outposts, extending from Changtsu toShiwan, thence rejoining the line at Hsiuakthun, near Mukden. Two Japanese companies of infantry ascended the Liao river in junks to Changtau, but were repulsed. GENERAL ITEMS. LONDON, September 20. Preemptory orders have been sent to Port Arthur and Vladivostock that when the fleets next attack they must destroy some of the Japanese ships at any risk,’ and so facilitate the Baltic squadron’s operations. The prospects of the Russian loan, which it is proposed to raise in Berlin, have diminished, and French bankers are reluctant to face fresh appeals.

The crew of the Lena have been allowed freedom within San Francisco, but they must not proceed elsewhere, and will not be repatriated except by mutual arrangement between Russia

and Japan. A Russian transport, bound with provisions and arms from Shanghai to Vladivostok, struck a rock at the Kuril! Islands, and was abandaned. The railway round Lake Baikal has been completed. Details relating to the loss of the Lucia, bound from Shanghai to Niuchwanp, show that tire vessel was becalmed and drifted on to a mine ton miles from Port Arthur. The survivors have arrived at Nagasaki. Advices from Bilbao, Spain, state that a Russian cruiser has seized a British steamer off Cape Santa Maria. (Received September 21, 9.33 p.m.) September 21. The Bilbao reports of the seizure of a British steamer are denied.

BENEATH THE SURFACE, t The Russians (says Jerome K. Jerome 1 in "M. A. P.” strike the stranger as a child like people, but you are possess ( ed with a haunting sense of ugly traits beneath. The workers—slaves it would be almost more just to call them—allow I themselves to be driven with the un- > complaining patience of intelligent animals- Yet every educated Russian you talk to on the subject knows that revolution is coming. But he talks to you about it with the door shut, for no man in Russia can be sure that his own servants are not police spies. 1 was discussing the question with a Russian official one evening in his study when his old housekeeper^entered the room—a grey hatred woman who had been in his service over eight years, and whose position in the household was almost that of a friend. He stopped abruptly and changed the conversation. As soon as the door was closed behind her again, he explained himself. “It is better to chat upon such matters when one is quite alone,” he laughed. “But surely yon can trust her,’ - I eaid. “It is safer to trust noone," he answered. And then he continued from the point where he had been interrupted. “It is gathering," he said; “there are times when i almost smell blood in the air. lam an old man and may escape it, but my children will have to suffer—suffer as children must do for the sins of their fathers. We have made hrute beasts of the people, and as brute beasts they will come upon üb, cruel, and undiscriminating; right and wrong indifferently going down before them. But it has to be. It is needed.” The future history of Russia will be the history ol the French Revolution over again, but with this difference: that the educated classes, the thinkers, who arc pushing forward the dumb massscs are doing 60 with their eyes open. There will be no Mirabean or Danton to ha appalled at the people’s ingratitude. The men who to-day are work-

CABLEGRAMS.

[FKB PBISS ASSOCIATION. —COPTBIGHT.] ing for revolution in Russia number among their ranks statesmen, soldiers, delicately-nursed • women, rich landowners, prosperous tradesmen, students familiar with with the lessons of history. They have no misconceptions concerning the blind Frankenstein into which they are breathing life. He will crush them, they know it; but with them he will crush the injustice and stupidity they l have grown to hate better than they love themselves. The Russian peasant, when he rises, will prove more terrible, more pitiless than were the men of 1790. He is less intelligent, more brutal. They sing a wild sad song, these Russian cattle, the while they work. They sing i it in chorus on the quays while hauling the cargo, they sing it in the factory, they chant it on the weary, endless j steppes, reaping the corn they may not' eat. It is about the good time their masters are having, of the feasting and , the merrymaking. But the last line j of every verse is the same. When yon ask a Russian to translate it for you he shrugs his shoulders. “Gh, it means,” he says, “that their time will come—some day.”