NOTES ON THE WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12608, 24 June 1904, Page 5

NOTES ON THE WAR.

The cablegrams give us glimpses of what is transpiring on the great field of war in Manchuria. The crisis of the war seems to have arrived. Japanese strategy has created a situation, for; General Kuropatkin from which he could not escape without the aid of a host. His relieving 'army is impounded; ho is cut off from the peninsula; and he cannot, have enough men left to make an effective countergtroke. \ , ' >. ' J There is a great tragedy being enacted in the peninsula. -An army of brave but beaten men are striving for a haven of refuge. They are doubtless hampered in their flight by the presence of sick and wounded and by lack of food. i Round them 1 is being run a chain of fire, which they cannot hope to break through. : Troops are oh their western side at Siung-yoe-eiieng; troops are moving into the Siung-yo mountains to intercept them there; troops,: are behind them, ,and troops are marching ; southward from ■ Yentai to cut them off from Kftjping. ; They haVe the, enemy on four sides, and in each direction a ; stronger fore© than they can show. And then-there is no hope ; of ; relief. >: With the impulse of a brave man. General Kuropatkin did move out from Liao-yang to succour his lieutenant, but j&enoral Kuroki, with part of the peninsular troops of General Oka, turned him back. With no hope of escape will General Stakleberg fight? He may, but it will be hopeless fighting, for he cannot have any' guns with him. General Kuroki must have advanced from Suiyen along the Haichenjg road, and then turned off in the direction ot Tashi-chia when he heard of the victory of Wa-f ang-kau. His first, movement to Suiyen had relation, no doubt, to this very movement. It was i r good jumping-off place. The Japanese knew three weeks ago that General Stakleberg was; down in the peninsula. They had a skirmish with him -about that time,' and then they left him alone. General Kuroki gave close attention to Samachi, and pretended that he was bent ;on operations in that di- ' rection. He was giving General Stakleberg time to grope his way well down the peninsula. Next troops : Were moved from Kinchsju up to Port Adams, and General Kuroki sprang upon Suiyen. All was now ready for the battle of Wa-fang-kau, and it was won. Finally came the pursuit, the advance of Kuroki,. and the advance of Nocku from somewhere in tho north of the peninsula. It was a long series of moves with checkmate in view; all the time. :\The Japanese 1 are strategists of the first water., They play a game of chess that 1 is deeper and fai more complicated than, that played by Europeans. < Everything had been provided for. It was expected that General Kuropatkln would, seek to, relieve , his : beaten army. General Kuroki was there' to turn him-back. The battle that was fought took place probably to the east of Tashi-chia. This is gathered from the fact that • a Japanese force has marched from Ycn-tni, a place a few miles to the east of Tashi-chia, to meet General Stakleberg. There has not, however, been a battle cither at Haicheng or at Liao-yang, but it cannot be long now before the Japanese roach those places. What the world wanted to know was what; poor, hunted General Stakleberg was doing. It was known that he arrived at Chungcha., to the cast of ' Siung-yue-rb.oiig,' on the «western .coast, J on Saturday; He said that after marching for two days and nights he and his men were able to rest. But General Nodzu was. Ahead of him and General Oka behind. He seems her© to have broken up his forces. We hear of a Japanese ambush for 800 of the Siberian Rifle Brigade at a point south of Kaiping, on the western coast. Then the Japanese Consul-General at Sydney has received official news of the. enemy having been \ found near Takushan, on the opposite side of the peninsula, i; They were attacked 30 miles west of Shi-kia-tien, and *' at many other places.'- They had turned, as a pursued hare does, at right angles in the desperate hope of getting away from ■ the enemy, and had run into an army. From Chung-cha, where they ware on Saturday, to the point at which they were attacked in ■ scattered parties is about 30 miles as the crow flies. It should not take long now for the Japanese to gather.. them all in. * Outside of this exciting news there is little to hand. Some torpedo boats have slipped out of "Vladivostok, gone over to the coast of Japan, and captured some small sailing vessels. By this time the Japanese will have laid their , plans for dealing with this kind of adventure. From Port Arthur no-i thing is heard, yet we know that the place is invested, and that the Japanese must be preparing for the bombardment. When the turmoil in the peninsula has subsided, as it will do in a day or two, we shall hear of the bombardment. The opening is certain to be a formal affair, for notioe will be given. At any moment now news from; Port Arthur may "be expected. The Russian : losses ; at' Wa-fsng-kau; and Te4i-sze—there appear to have been tw" : battles—must have been extraordinarily j heavy. :•'-•; General Oka reports that lie buried j 1516 Russians on the -battlefield; and -how: General Kuropatkin says that the sth Divi- i sion, of Siberian Rifles, sent away, by train no doubt, the bodies of 15 officers and 336 soldiers, besides 49 wounded officers and 992 wounded men. Then he says that 12offlcbi , and 582 men of the division were left dead or wounded on the field. The Chinese had told the Japanese that the Russians had carried away many bodies. Adding the 401 dead reported by General Kuropatkin to the 1516 reported by General Oka, we get 1917." To these must be ; added the wounded, who would number more than 8000. Thus we get the total casualties as close upon 11,000. j These figures do not cover the losses in skirmishes prior to the battle, nor the losses in the retreat. . * The total losses of the Russians ip the land fighting in killed, wounded, and -prisoners must be great. The battle of the Yalu and the retreat accounted foi about 8500 killed and wounded; the battles of Kinchau and Nanshan Hill for about 5000; and the battle of Wa-fang-kau for ; 11,000. Then there were the affairs of Vogan-fau, Stiiyen, Samachi, and numerous skirmishes in Manchuria and in the peninsula. It is a low estimate that the total losses under fire have been 30,000. Then there are 20,000 men locked up in Port Arthur, and the remnant of Stakleberg' army, which must all be. lost. General Kuropatkin may be getting men by rail daily, but he heeds them all to raaka'up for the waste of war. _ • ■•■; ■.;.. ' ,WAR ITEMS. • A Liao-yang report, dated May 25, says:— The father (a corps commander) of the Japanese officer who yesterday committed suicide by disembowelling himself lifts given orders to the men of his corps to capture a Russian officer alive. '■■■■■' :■■■-■ _ j A Russian report dated Liao-yang, May 25, says:—A wounded Cossack who has ar- | rived at Sayolentsi leports that a fight took I place north of Takushau on May 20, in which the Japanese ambushed a aotnia of Cossacks and nearly wiped them out The Cossacks' were patrolling to the north of lakushan for a distance of 18 miles when I they fell in with three squadron? of Japanese cavalry, who retreated.': The; Cossacks j followed, and fell ink an ambuscade, a body of Japanese infantry being concealed behind o small hill. Commander Beokromesheff ordered his men to draw their sabres and cut their way out, when, his horse' was shot from under him. He had just time to j otdux the mink ■'.. to scatter when he ; tell ; wounded.-, The Japanese then closed in on j two sides, firing volleys at close range. The i two remaining officers fell, and the Cossacks I retreated with the loss of tlimu officers and 1 , ( 30 own, ', J '#0--.;^' , '.^." : t" ' '<■' : • - ; ~.. . ■••-. 'j- .•''■■■■ • : :.-: ; ; ■' ."' ; ;s?^-.--.--. .' ■ .-. ■ ■■ - >■■■. ■ ■-/•">:<:;..: ■■■;■■■: