THE WAS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7843, 21 May 1904, Page 5

THE WAS.

BUSSJA AND JAPAN.

A Japanese Disaster.

Two Warships Lost

llussia iv a Fix,

I (Per Press Association—Copyright.) i LONDON, May 20. ~JL 1S r> r°l3orlcd 'at Tientsin that io,oo_ Russians arc marching .to the 1 relief of Port Arthur, thereby compelling the Japanese to accelerate their assault. The .Japanese are mounting 6-inch 1 guns,, hoping to silence the Port Arthur batteries. Their advanced lines are within seven miles of th« Russian guns. Several reports, one of which is attributed to the Russian staff at St. Petersburg, announce that Japanese have occupied Niuchwang. The Russians at Mukden declare the Japanese havo withdrawn four, teen miles from Kaichau in order to occupy the passes cast of Haickcngi and Liaoyang. One of tho vessels sunk at tho entrance of Port Arthur has b«en removed, leaving a narrow, dangerous passage. , Admiral Dewa reported to* Admiral Togo that on tho afternoon of the loth, during a dense fog, the Kasuga rammed the Yoshino (.ISO tons, 23 knots) off Port Arthur, sinking her in a few minutes. Ninety-of the crew were saved. On the same morning the battleship Ilatsiise (15,000 tons, 18 knots) was cruising off Port Arthur and covering the landing of troops, when sire struck a mine ten knots southwards of the harbour entrance. When signalling for help, she struck a second mine. She sank half an hour afterwards. Just then the Russian flotilla of sixteen torpedo boat destroyers approached, but the cruisers bea. them off. The Japanese torpedoers saved 300 men, including Admiral Hashiba and Captain Nalcao. The Hatsuse's crew, numbered 714 and the Yoshino's 360. Korea has annulled .all Russian treaties and agreements, including the Yalu-Tumcn timber concessions. Russia is terribly uneasy as. to the safety of the; railway, though1 25,000 soldiers are guarding 1400 miles. Russian' military critics declare that action such as China's indifference to the Clnmchuses' activity creates the worst kind of war, since it is cloaked by a hypocritical neutrality. Count Lamsdorff urges the Powers to impress on China the desirability of punishing any violation of the Imperial precepts.

The captain of a Chinese ship, which has reached Wei jhai-wei, states that the Japanese, on Sunday, heavily bombarded simultaneously with the landing of a great force behind Port Arthur.

The Times' military expert calculates that it will take the railway 37 days to transport to Mukden even one army corps, while .two additional coi'ps cannot arrive before the end of September. Japanese officers state that two destroyers had escaped from Port Arthur., and are still at large. It is dcclarecl that the Russians are using Chinese junks to place mines in tlie path of the Japanese (leet while it is patrolling the coast of the Liaotung peninsular. The Japanese sank a tng and seve- , ral junks which were laying., mines. The fleet will now keep a "greater distance off shore.

The Japanese have, also, laid many mines outside Port Arthur in the hope of sinking the escaped destroyers. Many mines, unanchored, are 'drifting all over the Liaotung Gulf. The Fawan passed eight • and a Chinese junk-picked up thirteen of them.The Russian Admiralty claim that after the Petropavlovsk disaster torpedoers, during the night, placed mines where they had observed Japanese ships frequently lay while bombarding.. "| „'[\