CHINA AND JAPAN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1180, 12 October 1894, Page 17

CHINA AND JAPAN.

MAP. PORTRAIT OF THE JAPANESE ADMIRAL. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. HISTORY OF THE WAR. We append some general information which will be interesting. POSSIET BAY. Possiet Bay, the place where a Japanese force is supposed to have landed a few days ago, is in the Japan Sea, on the northern Corean coast, near the Russian frontier. MOUKDEN. lies about 150 miles north-west from the mouth of the Yaloo and about 420 miles north by east from Pekin, with the Wall of China across the line of route, the Wall being about 120 miles from Pekin at the point of contact. Moukden is the old capital of Manchuria and one of the headquarters of the army of Manchuria, the other being at Tsitsikar, 350 miles further north. Between the two lies the modern Manchoo, capital of Keriu. North of Tsitsikar is the Russian frontier, the River Amoor distant from that place, according to the bends of the stream, from 100 to 600 miles. VLABIVOSTOCK. Not far from Possiet Bay lies the great Russian naval station of the Pacific. It is open all the winter, like the western harbours of Corea. It is situated about 800 miles from the mouth of the Amcor, which flows into the Gulf of Tartary over against the large island of Saghalien. The Russian Maritime Province lies between the Amoor mouth and the Corean boundary, a few miles south of Yladivostock. It is 800 miles long by 200 broad at the widest. The boundaries are the Sea of Japan and the Gulf of Tartary on one side and the Asuri River, which follows practically the dotted line of the map from the Corean frontier to its junction (500 miles) with the Amoor; the Amoor thence taking a sharp bend to the north, forms the other 300 miles of the boundary between the Maritime Province and Siberia in the same line to its mouth. EXTENSION OF RUSSIA. Fifty years ago Russia and China were not neighbours. Now the extension of the Russian Empire across Central Asia and Siberia brings, the two empires into contact for 3000 miles. Russia has not only made this prodigious advance in the half century, but she has outflanked the eastern frontier, as above described, by the acquisition of the Maritime Province, and come 800 miles further south into temperate regions. STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF COREA. Interposing between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, Corea is a strong barrier between Russia and China on the sea. If Russia got possession the whole of the vast commerce of China would be at her mercy, the capital, and all the great ports and embouchures of the waterways. If China were in possession she could interpose an effective barrier in the Strait of Corea. It is not, therefore, for the sovereignty over the nine millions of Coreans that China is now fighting. What are nine millions to an empire of four hundred millions or thereabouts ? China fights for the outwork of her hundred gates. Colonised from China, Chinese by a tradition of seven centuries, the Coreans have always preserved an extreme jealousy of their independence. They kept all foreigners out of their country until they found it impossible to resist intercourse any longer. The Japanese were welcomed as a counterpoise to Chinese pretensions. The pushed their way, nothing loth, and finding the Chinese pretensions inconvenient, quietly occupied the country. Hence the war. To Japan

the possession of the Corean peninsula is a very great consideration, as against Chinese or Russian preponderance. The Japanese are forty millions. But they cannot afford to have a series of fortified harbours over against the entrance- to their inland seas, which, with the exception of the big rivers of China, are more crowded with shipping than any other waters in the world. THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. The Japanese being in possession of Seoul, the capital, and Chemulpo, its port. China declared war, and despatched an invading army from Manchooria, a detachment, no doubt, from the army of that name. Marching from Moukden, Tsitsikar, this force got as far as Ping Yang on Corean territory, and was there met and beaten by a Japanese army. Shortly afterwards the Chinese Squadron, while conveying reinforcements to the Yaloo River, on which the Manchoor had fallen back after the defeat at Ping Yang, was attacked and so badly beaten that the command of the sea passed into the hands of the Japanese absolutely, so far as can be ascertained. Some of the troops, however,. appear to have been landed at the Yaloo mouth, and those have been, it is now said, joined by the remains, of the invading force, which appears to be standing its ground. Later news likewise shows that Moukden has not been evacuated, and therefore that the Japanese are not as yet driving the Manchu army into the heart of Manchuria. At present, there is nothing to prevent, in case of another defeat, the retreat of the Chinese army from Moukden towards Pekin. That such a contingency is contemplated we may judge from the cable message of the other day, which announced that a force of 25,000 men was posted east of Pekin. To make a diversion into Manchuria, the Japanese have landed 5000 men at Possiet Bay, near the Russian frontier. That will probably interfere seriously with the Chinese programme. As we write, the news comes that another force has been landed on the north-western coast of Corea, and is marching on Keriu, the arsenal and old capital of Manchuria, a short distance north-east of Moukden. The idea, evidently, is to drive the Manchu army away from Pekin. That force seems not to have been so much cut up as the first news implied. And it has been reinforced, probably by the 25,000 men above named. But with 50,000 Japanese regulars to deal with, the army of Manchuria is probably lost to Pekin for the coming struggle. On the other hand, the Japanese have despatched an army of 30,000 men, whose destination is supposed to be Pekin. They have possession of the harbour of Port Arthur and Chefoo on either horn of the Gulf of Pechili, their cruisers are parading the straits, and a squadron is fluttering the Chinese dovecotes of the great ports of the coast to the southward.

The plan probably is to amaze the enemy with feints in many directions, to land an army in the Pekin district, somewhere between the Yellow River and the Peiho, avoiding the Taku forts, which proved fatal to our people in 1862, and which cruisers cannot approach on account of the shoals. To prevent that army from getting to Pekin the Chinese have the garrison of the Taku forts, a large force at Tientsin, the number of which has not transpired, and the 5000 picked men mentioned the other day as marching out under Prince Kung. A message has announced that the army of Turkestan has started for Pekin. The distance of Kashgar from Pekin as the crow flies is 2000 miles. Of the distance 1000 can probably be done by water, much of it by steam, down the Yellow River. But the rest of the distance would have to be marched. From Kashgar, the road lies down the valley of the Tarim (a river nearly as long as the Danube) to the inland sea of Lob Nor, and thence by a series of easy passes and valleys, leaving Thibet on the right and the Gobi Desert on the left, to the basin of the Yellow River. These troops will be a long time getting to Pekin, and the Japanese are close to the gates.

ADMIRAL ITO. By courtesy of Mr Geo. Fisher, Italian Consul, we are enabled to present a portrait of Admiral Ito, who has astonished the naval authorities of the world by the rapidity and effectiveness of the movement of his fleet in action against the Chinese. As with England, though, of course, on a smaller scale, the strength of Japan lies in her fleet. She has swept the Yellow Sea, taken command of the Gulf of Pechili, paralysed the Chinese sea and land forces and blocked all the important Chinese ports immediately south

of Corea. The masterly handling- of the Japanese fleet is due to Admiral Ito’s unbounded courage and indomitable will. He is the “Billy Hewitt” (Admiral Hewitt) of the Japanese navy. The engagements between the two fleets, as the cablegrams inform us, have been watched with great interest by the naval authorities of all nations, this being the first occasion on which modern heavy-armoured ships have been brought “ face to face ” in actual battle on the sea. Admiral Ito visited New Zealand on a holiday cruise in the Eiujio in 1884.