THE WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12698, 28 October 1904, Page 5

THE WAR.

MANCHURIAN CAMPAIGN

KUROPATKIN'S APPOINTMENT.

By Telegraph— Association— Cspyriß^

London, October 26. The Tsr. has issued a ukase appointing General Kuropatkin com-mander-in-chief of the armies in Manchuria. Admiral Alexeieff is to retain tho office of Viceroy of Manchuria.

THE RUSSIAN WOUNDED.

CHINESE IN DISTRESS.

London, October 26. The war correspondents say that" there is still apparently an endless line of Russian wounded crawling along the roads leading to Mukden. One thousand distressed Chinese families have taken refuge in Mukden and are living in the streets,

A JAPANESE TRAITOR,

BEATEN TO DEATH.

London, October 26.

It is reported in Tokio that some naval officers discovered that a Japanese admiral had been guilty of accepting a bribe of £12,000 for information leading to the loss of the transport Hitachi Maru and to the damage to the Sado Marii. The sentence Of death was communicated to him by an intimate friend.

The admiral was then compelled to remove his uniform and was beaten to death by his comrades.

That therd was something mysterious about the Russians intercepting the three transports was noticed at the time. Then the Russians took .care to sink the Hitachi Maru, which they have always claimed carried the heavy guns prepared for the siege of Port Arthur. ,

BRITISH STEAMER MINED.

STRUCK FAR FROM PORT

ARTHUR.

London, October 26. A floating. mine struck the British steamer Tashung when she was of! the Shantung Peninsula, more than 100 miles from Port Arthur.

The explosion tore away ten feet of the plates of the vessel, but she was saved from sinking by her collision bulkheads.

THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY,

SCHEME FOR, DUPLICATION.

(Reccirea October 27, 11.4 p.m.) London, October 27. The Daily Telegraph's correspondent at St. Petersburg reports that the Tsar lia.s sanctioned the plan of Prince Khilkoff for the duplication of the Siberian railway. The cost is estimated at £11,000,000.

NEW RUSSIAN NAVY.

London, October 27.

The Tsar also has approved of the Admiralty's scheme for the creation of the nucleus of a new fleet at a cost of £40,000,000.

RUSSIAN CORRUPTION.

A TYPICAL CASE.

(Received October 27, 10.6 p.m.)

St. Petersburg, October 27.

M, Mozoroff, a millionaire manufacturer of Moscow, informed the Grand Duke Serge, the military governor, of the city, that a million roubles' worth of cloth he had given for the troops in Manchuria was on sale in the shops of Moscow.

The accusation of corruption led to a quarrel with the Grand Duke, and M. Mozoroff declined to apologise. His passports were handed to him. He threatened to close his factories, thus throwing idle 65,000 people. The Government then intervened, the passports were withdrawn, and M, Mozoroff remains at Moscow.

WAR ITEMS. The Neue Freie Presse states that General Kuropatkin complained of having only 18 mountain guns at his disposal, and expresses surprise at not receiving the others he had asked for. The Tsar, scarcely crediting the news,' caused inquiries to be made, when it was discovered that 80 mountain guns ordered at the Putiloff factory had long been completed, and that no one had thought of sending them to the sent of war, where they were so urgently needed. During the lectures on the war' which are being given by Kieff residente to the peasants, an invalided officer named Rosen moved his audience to tears by the following story : — " During the retreat of a detachment of our Cossacks across the Suenho, the last man to cross was swept from his saddle and carried down stream. Our men. not seeing the accident, rode off. When the Japanese, who were in hot pursuit, arrived at the bank, the Cossack, exhausted, had gone under three times. A Japanese cavalryman, getting oil his horse, jumped into the rive;-, and caught the drowning man. The Hooded stream carried both swiftly down, and they failed to land; but the Jap continued to hold his helpless enemy, and finally caught hold of a snag, and dragged the man ashore. The Cossack recovered ; the Japanese spat up blood, and fell dead." . An amusing incident is reported as having occurred during the fighting at Taschichiao. During a lull in the fighting, three high Russian staff officers undressed and bathed in (lie river. While thus engaged, a large body of Japanese cavalry suddenly appeared ; and the officers Were compelled to fly towards camp in the garb of AdamFinding a number of empty flour sacks, they donned them, tearing holes in the bottom for their heads. " When they got back," writes the authority for this story, "the wounded were being got in. Two of the female Red Cross nurses, though actually binding up wounds, were so terrified by the apparition that they abandoned their work and fled. Then, realising the situation, they stopped and burst into loud peals of uncontrollable laughter, and I never remember seeing anything to compare with this unrehearsed medley of farce and darkest tragedy. Even the tortured faces of the wounded men were animated by faint sniiks,''