NOTES ON THE WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12833, 5 April 1905, Page 5

NOTES ON THE WAR.

The members of the- war parly in St. Petersburg are opposed to the making of peace until another Russian army has been smashed. They profess to believe that tin* army of General Linovileli will be soon raised to the same strength as Hie army of General Kuropalkir before the battle of Mukden. According to both Russian and Japanese accounts, General Kuropatkin's losses numbered ?.00,000, and thai number of men cannot get to the. front within six months at the very earliest. The Japanese should be near Hn> Sungari Riser within a fortnight or three, weeks. There must be a battle then if tho Russians are to save Harbin and Vladivostok. Each of the armies now advancing must be oipial to the full strength that General Linevitch can put into the* field—say, 100,000 men. "II is .said the Council of Ministers in St. Petersburg is to consider the question of peace at an parly date in the light 01 military and diplomatic reports. If the military'situation is correctly described, the Ministers cannot lie in much doubt, as to what should I>* done. The only (mention remaining will be whether peace should be made before or after the fall of Harbin.

The five Russian warships, reported as sighted off Verim. in the lied Sea, must have been the third Baltic squadron. This reinforcement, is not of much accounton© or two out-of-date warships, and the rest transports. Nothing has.been heard yet of the whereabouts of Roshdestvenski. Ilia ships were seen 250 miles north-east of Madagascar, and then vanished like phantoms. Of the Japanese squadrons that were steaming westward at full speed wo hear nothing. The Indian Ocean, however, is a big playground, even for a game of hide and seek between two great fleets.