BACK FROM THE FRONT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 13

BACK FROM THE FRONT

TRIALS OF A CORRESPONDENT.

Mr Frederick A. McKenzie, the war correspondent of the London “Daily Mail/’ who has served with the fii'st Japanese army since the beginning of hostilities in the Far East, on his way Home was interviewed at San Francisco. Seen at the Murray Hill Hotel, Mr McKenzie said:

“I am responding with all possible haste to the summons of my paper to come to London. I left Liao-Fang, Manchuria, on October 6th.’’

Though fully informed as to the trials of detention at Tokio experienced by the correspondents who accompanied the second army, Mr McKenzie betrayed no spirit of boastfulness, but said: “It wa3 my good fortune that, while on a special mission in Australia, I was directed in J anuary to go to Korea, and I was in Seoul a week before the war began. I was at Chemulpo on February Bth, when the first division of General Kuroki’s army was landed. Within the week fifteen thousand .men had been disembarked, and the advance northward was begun. Being on the spot, I had an initial advantage, and went along. Permission cam© a little later from Tokio that attached me to the headquarters staff, and from that time I was under military control and supervision, and so continued until I obtained the leave under which I am now travelling. My home, or headquarters, is therefore still at Liao-Yang. The thing that first deeply impressed me was the marvellous evidence exhibited in every department of the Japanese army and at every step of its progress, of the faultless preparation that had been made for the campaign. The tranportation arrangements were perfection, both on sea and on land; the commissariat was complete, the medical provisions covered every possible contingency, and no exigency arose as the army advanced that had not seemingly been anticipated. “I was continuously with the army until early in inarch, when I returned to Seoul. I rejoined th'e staff the middle of April, and continued in that relation until I left there for home a little over a month ago. Of course, every line of what I wrote was subjected to censorship, and after that the unavoidable delays in transmission had a tendency to break the heart of the correspondent. One incident in my own experience will serve to indicate the embarrassments to be encountered along this line. It was in connection with the battle of Caoutou. I had heard that the fighting was in progress, and, obtaining permission, I rode off to see what I might of the engagement. The country is rugged, and is traversed with difficulty. I was held up two or thiree times by Japanese soldiers, and once, getting, too near the Russian lines, was shot at, but luckily proved a poor target. ‘‘l was three days going and coming, and after writing my story on my return to headquarters and submitting it to the censor, T lad to send it by foot messenger in relays I had previously arranged, a distance of more than two hundred miles, to Pingyang, where a friend put it on the wire—a single wire line, at that —to Seoul. The transmission to Pingyang alone occupied five days. My agent at Seoul, when it reached that post, transcribed the message and corrected any inaccuracies that might have crept into the matter on the way, and sent it on to London, and from Pingyang to London the transmission consumed a fortnight. The feelings of the correspondent, who knew that the official report of a battle was in New York and London as soon as it was ended, or even while in progress, may be imagined when he came to understand that at best his story would be three weeks old when it reached the types. “Though the facilities were not at all times what one might have wished/’ said Mir McKenzie, “they were certainly very much better with the first army than with the second. Owing to the topography of the country it was possible in several of the engagements to witness

the actual fighting. That was notably true in the battle of the Yalu, which was like a vast panorama, or war drama, spread out clearly under the range of vision. It was also my privilege to see much of the fighting of the battle of Liao-Yang. The fighting, it will be i*emembered, began on August 25th with the turning movement, which was almost a continuous fight untif the flank attack on Kouropatkin was begun on September Ist, and only ended with great loss to both armies on the 6t.li.

“The dominant impress-ion I brought away with me/’ said Mr McKenzie, “was the wonderful courage displayed by both the Japanese and Russian soldiery. I have seen the spot with the proofs still in evidence 'after a Japanese charge, wliere one Japanese soldier had moved a few shovelsful of earth in digging a trench and when- shot- down another took his place only to share his fate, and so the tragedy was repeated until a dozen men hart fallen to make the protection for a single fighting comrade. “The Russians were notably ineffective in the beginning. The officers trusted to their subordinates, had too many women, in camp, and indulged tco much in drink. They seemed to play at soldiering, but there has been a change and they are now more serious and deeply in earnest. It would be a mistaken notion to think the war would end with the camuaign of 1904.

“It was the opinion in the field after the battle of Liao-Yang that the Japanese would continue the advance and fight their way to the occupation of Mukden as a_ winter base, but that programme has been delayed, and with the increasing strength of the Russians it can. merely be a field for conjecture and speculation as to what are now the chances of the Japanese achieving that end/’