WAR ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12853, 29 April 1905, Page 5

WAR ITEMS.

Describing a friendly meeting between a Russian' and a Japanese officer on the Shaho, the Express correspondent at Kobe mentions the curious fact that the accepted Russian time varied by 65 minutes from the Japanese.

The war . correspondent of the Slovo wires a suggestive hint as to the horrors of the retreat from Mukden. When the retreat was ordered, soldiers of all arms swarmed to the railway and stormed the carriages. They climbed on the roofs, they mounted the couplings; in some cases they even were .hanging to the axles of the wheels. Some of the. roofs collapsed under the heavy weight of the soldiers on the top. One train could not move, because of the packed masses of soldiers hanging on the working parts, until a general appeared and restored order by turning half the men oft' the train. General Kuropatkin, ib is reported, formed up a couple of the retreating regiments and led them against the advance guard of the Japanese with colours flying.

Special telegrams from the front to St. Petersburg after the battle of Mukden were full of excuses for the rout. Some blame the'dust storm, some the Wai Office, some the commander-in-chief. The officers were wrangling about responsibility, each trying to blame somebody else and exculpate himself. The correspondents hinted, as guardedly as possible, that the defeat was so crushing that the Russian -> had 110 chance of continuing the struggle.

The Chinese at Niuehwang (says Renter) celebrated the fall of Mukden with tireworks and lantern processions. Merrymakers and stilt-walkei'i crowded the streets.

In a description of the battle of Mukden, Renter explains the reason of the Russian defeat. On March 7 the Russian positions were in the form of a boot, with the toe at Maclliapu and the heel on the Hunho, at Fushan, about five miles wide, and in order to meet the danger that the Japanese might plug the top of the boot, Kuropatkin sent thither 40 battalions, in command of General Miloff. The Russians 'began slowly to force the Japanese back at the critical point, but the Japanese in then turn reinforced! their extreme right, and Kuropatkin, seeing that all yas apparently going well in the othet positions, and determining to stake everything on a decisive blow, collected the remainder of his strategic reserve, and led their in person to the north front, throwing them on the flank of the Japanese, who were endeavouring to cut the railway. The scale of weight was all 011 the Russian side, and the Japanese retired. At this moment two. sets of reports were received—-the first, that a column of the enemy way moving further north round the rigli' flank, and the second that the Japanese 011 the Hunho had taken advantage of the storm, which Was blowing the dust in the faces of the Russians, to thrust a column through at Fulin Kiusan, 011 the instep of the boot. With all the strategic reserves already engaged, it became impossible to meet the dancer from these sources. which was immediate and critical, and at eight in. the evening the order to retire to Tieling through the boot leg was given.