SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 5

SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR.

GEN. STOESSEL'S REPORT. FOOD AND AMMUNITION SHORT. London, September 15. French newspapers say that General Stoessel has informed the Tsar that the garrison of Port Arthur has now been a week without meat, and has only a little flour. Ammunition also, he says, is scarce. Every preparation, ho says, has been made to blow up the fortifications and a portion of the town in the event of the Japanese storming the fortress. BRITISH VESSEL MINED, SUPPOSED A BLOCKADE RUNNER. (Received September in, 10.51 p.m.) London, September 16. A small British sailing vessel named the Lucia struck a mine at Port Arthur. Only one of the crew was sa,ved. It is supposed that she was a blockade runner. THE RAILWAY, ALTERATION OF THE GAUGE. London, September 15. The Japanese have shortened the sleepers of the railway in Manchuria, and altered the gauge to suit their own rolling stock. THE TRANSPORT LENA. DAMAGED BY JAPANESE CRUISER. London, September 15. A Japanese nobleman, at present in New York, says the Russian transport Lena was damaged by a Japanese cruiser to the westward of the Farallones Islands, which are near San Francisco. The cruiser, he says, is awaiting the departure of the Lena t-om San Francisco. There is an impression in Tokio that the transport Lena called at Korsakovsk, in Saghalien Island and took aboard the guns and the crew of the stranded cruiser Novik. Captain Beklinsky, of the Lena, has asked the permission of the Tsar to dismantle the Lena. The Novoe Vremya says that the arrival of the Lena at San Francisco has struck fear into the hearts of the owners of ships in the contraband trade.