A Retrospect

Manawatu Standard, 29 July 1904, Page 3

A Retrospect

. ■ At'last ..tho hour ■<■'that-the. J„panf ese have waited for is appro-ahing-^-' wheh. the advance '.-to the assault upon Port Arthur will be .sounded. At no point in the campaign- will the Japanese hurl themselves with greater fury at th© Russians than in .the entrenchments round the historia fortress. And none among the Mikado's, fiery troops''will be more eager for this desperate enterprise than tho Kamamoto division, which helped to wrest the fortress from /the Chinese, and are noiW •again, amongst the assailants. The Japanese' have waited ten years for tins, and when' the fast approaching hour 'arrives it will be to them a supreme'moment of the war. • ■•'

A brief retrospect .may be intearefeir ing. It was early on November 21st, 1894, that the Japamese army under Marshal Count Oyama, after landing at Pdt-su-wo and seizingi Talionwan Bay, made Kinehuu its jumping-off point for the land assault on Port Arthur— the Ohnneso s.qaiadron having, been practically destroyed at : the battle of the Yalu. The Chinese defenders were: beaten back by the Japanese, and a little after mid-day all the inland forts had been carried. An attack was then made upon the coast defences1. Gol? den Hill, bristling, with artillery,, was captured by' 4 o'clock and almost simultaneously tho news came to the .victors on tho. ;lieighte that their comrades in the town had completed their task, in spite o£ the Ohinesc garrison of over 20,000. Tho wo-t-cr» forts were attacked on the following day, but when the J apanesa adv-ainc-ed they, found that the Chinese gunners had fled.

Port' Arthur was planned by Li Hung Chang to bid defiance to Japan and any other intruders, and the _army and. the whole Japanese Empire rejoiced exceedingly at its capture. Though the campaign wall ot, by any moans ended, it was decided that war could wait, while officers 'and men celebrated the; occasion. At short notice, says ono narrative of the campaign, it was not possible ,to .obtain, any great delicacies for the feast, but- the .commissariat was ransacked for •■all that >it could provide. Tho men were regaled on the vast parade ground, and later nearly 600 officers gathered 'in a large open space near the dockyard. On long tables, rice., wine, tinned and potted meats, pork, biscuits, dried cuttlefish, etc.,- werq set out. It was not a menu which would have tempted 'an epicurean palate, but it served its purpose. As the simple food was consumed, congratulations passed from one; fo another, and then Marshal Count Oyama, who had led the troops with such conspicuous success, . proposed hearty cheers for ' the Emperor, to whose virtue, as usual in Japan, the victory was ascribed. No sooner had tho lulls ceased to echo and reecho the shouts than this officer was carried shoulder-high -ground the place of feasting. Thus was the capture of Port Arthur celebrated.

What followed is a -matter of simple history.. . After the war Japan was compelled by Russia, backed up by Germany and France, to hand back the fortress nominally to China. Russia played a deep game aud won." Within twd and a half years Port Arthur .had been "leased" to' the Czar, and .the Kussians took such a proprietary interest in the place that it was proposed to alter the name (it was too English for Russian tastes) to Port Nicholas. This brief .history of '''■ The Gibraltar of the East" should suffice to show with what foelinijs of hatred*, and revenge thta Japanese will attack the forces of the Power -which has deprived them of their victory of ten years ago.