RUSSIANS EVACUATING SOUTH OF MUKDEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12834, 6 April 1905, Page 7

RUSSIANS EVACUATING SOUTH OF MUKDEN.

j FIGHTING AT THE IMPERIAL TOMBS. Mukden-, March 9. A heavy cannonading is in progress north-west of this city, causing the walls of houses here to tremble. A division of Japanese troops has appeared north of Mukden, on the heights west of Hushalai station. An engagement is in progress at tho Imperial Tombs, and the battle is in full progress. Tho Japanese, last night attacked tho Russia positions north of Mukden, and forced tho Russians to fall back a little. The Japanese are concentrating on tho west, front. Tho Russian army is evacuating its positions south of Mukden. The sky is lighted villi the brilliant glare of blunting warehouses, whore tons A commissary supplies have been given to the Humes. The retirement >\s being .fleeted in perfect older, tlu Russians beating off attacks of pursuing Japanese. l'ho withdrawal was necessitated by a. heavy concentration of Japanese nest and northwest, of Mukden, whither they have transferred a huge share of tho forces from ho southern front to reinforce the original striking force of General Nogi. The Russians still hold their position at Madyapu, where a strong attack is expected at any moment. Except for lights at Ushuntuii and Tatehekiao, Tuesday was quiet compared with tho fighting on the previous days. The Japanese, evidently were completing their transfer "of troops. i'ho Japanese arrangement for furnishing ammunition along the enormous front is acknowledged by Russian officers to be admirable. Mukden is still in the nauds of the Russians, but withdrawal from the lino of tho Shakhe River is in full progress. The Russians alsr are holding the village of Ushuntuu, which at nightfall was partly in the hands of the Russians and partly iu those of the Japanese. Telegraphic communication with Harbin was destroyed by the Japanese early this morning, but has since been restored. The burning of commissariat, warehouses and the destruction of supplies south of .Mukden, which has been in progress several days, is said by Russian officers to be complete. Everything that could not be carried away was destroyed. The Russians are retiring from the liue of the Shakhe River slid tho left flank to the line af fortifications on tho Hun River. Japanese arc north of Mukden, and advauciuli against tho railroad at Unguntuu. A right is raging two miles west of the railroad, and projectile: reach the railroad.

JAPANESE STARVING AND EXHAUSTED. Mukden, March 10. At midnight the. tenth day of the Titanic struggle for the possession of Mukden, closed. The combat is fast reaching a point where it is a question not so much of turning columns, of tactics aud of strategy, as to whose strength, energy, and cartridges, will last the longer. For 48 hours the Japanese have not eaten. They are starving and exhausted, but FieldMarshal Ova ma himself has told them that the city will fall and the slaughter stop ou Friday, and their confidence in their leader increased their strength tenfold, (hi Wednesday, when the Russians took Ushuntuu, a few dozen Japanese clung to the thick walled temple and refused all overtures to surrender. Cannon were brought up and breached the walls, but tho courage of the defenders continued under the fire, and finally, when defence was hopeless, they blew themselves skyward with tho ruins of the temple. One survivor rather than surrender threw himself into a stone-rimmed well and perished. To-day the Japanese are pushing their columns north and north-east, bombarding villages which are keys of the defence, and hurling men, some of them veterans of the year's campaign, and others middle-aged reserves, fresh from Japan, against Russian positions. Often they are repulsed, and sometimes they master the advanced line, but at enormous cost.

An artillery fire is now being directed from the vicinity of the ancient northern tombs against, the Japanese forces which are crowding to the railways, where additional troops are assembled to meet this contingency. The narrow strip west of the railroad is literally covered with soldiers and military accoutrements. The entire south front is now retiring in conformity with a plan formulated upon the consequences of the day's lighting, and the Japanese, apprehending the movement, are themselves rushing north around tho Russian right. Tho hospitals here are row crowded, bu£ the service continues adequate. Only sunlight and the mildness of the weather prevent indescribable suffering among the wounded and the supports and the reserves, who are obliged to dig deep on the wide, shelterless plain and lie widely extended in. order to escape the shrapnel which is sown broadcast for 15 miles on the west, while all the troops on nearly 90 miles of battle line are constantly exposed. [Mukden was evacuated on the night of Thursday, March 10.] THE ORDER FOR RETREAT. ■St. Petersburg, March 14. A correspondent with General Reinicnkainpff's headquarters sends descriptions of the Tsinkhetchcn operations, the difficult retreat on Oubcnepusa., aud the stubborn defence of the position there by this hardy vanguard of the first army. "When, on the evening of March 7', the Oubenepusa detachment, received from On; staff of the first army the order to retire to positions on the Hun River, cast, of Fushun, the officers at first refused to believe that I he report was authentic, tho more so as the Japanese, towards evening, had begun to retire along the whole front., and the troops expected from moment to moment an order to launch themselves iu pursuit. So cruelly, so bitterly disappointing was the order to abandon the. positions on which about twothirds of tho whole detachment had fallen, that many of the soldiers, sobbing, knelt and kissed the blood-stained earth, and then gloomily and unwillingly curried out; the order to retire. On every hand privates were asking their leaders; why, and getting no explanation. In the depth of the. night lines of troops moved out of the entrenchments, leaving the bodies of their fellows, buried and unburied, behind, and then burned the stores and provisions which were abandoned by the unexpected retreat, enormous tires illuminating the road afar. The retreat was executed in perfect order, and the troopers, leaving Madyadany to the eastward, felt back to the appointed positions on the Hun River. Officers and men alike felt tho blow keenly. 'Why, oh, why,' sobbed one. did not they let us die in oppositions?'"