THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5294, 4 June 1904, Page 5

THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.

CABLE NEWS. U.MXiiD gitlio* A2>t*UCIATiUN. BV EIiKCTiUu TEi-EUltAßll.—COrYiaOilX

the campaign in the fab east, OPERATIONS ON THE LIAO-TUNG PENINSULA. AFFAIRS AT PORT ARTHUR. (Received Juno 3, 1045 p.ra.) LONDON, Juno 3. Tho correspondent of “The Times” aboard tbe steamer Haimun reports that refugees from Port Arthur state the military authorities have requisitioned all foodstuffs, leaving the natives and civilians to rely upon chance supplies by junks. It is estimated that on half rations tho garrison has sullicient foodstuffs to last fire months. Five damaged warships are moored to the jetties. Everything movable has been removed, i It is assorted in naval circles at Kronstadt that the last order sent from St. Petersburg to the Admiral at Port Arthur is that in the last event he is to get into open fight with Admiral Togo. The Russians at Vagenfau (seventy miles north of Port Arthur) are trying to march to tho relief of Port Arthur. Constant outpost engagements are occurring. Juno %■ Before the Japanese entered Dalny the mob liberated two hundred gaolbirds, who had the free run of the town for thirty hours. Quantities of Japanese railway plant have been landed in the peninsula. Rear-Admiral Gregprivioh reports from Port Arthur that many of the Japanese mines, at the entrance to the port have been discovered and exploded. THE FIGHT AT KINCHAU. (Received Juno 3. 1045 p.m.) LONDON, Jane 3. Military critics in Russia attribute the defeat of the Russian forces at Kiuchau last week to tho Japanese batteries on Mount Sampson dominating tho Russian positions. General Pflug, Aumiral Alexieff’s chief of stall, reports that tho Russian casualties at Kinchau were thirty officers and eight hundred men. General 1-ilug adds that tho Russians destroyed all their guns bolore abandoning them. IN MANCHURIA. KOUROPATKIN’S AND KUROKI’S FORCES. (Received June 3, 10.45 p.m.) LONDON, dune 3. General Kouropatkin reports that quiet prevails in tho direction of Feng-haaug-cheng (west of the I'alu). Tho General adds that the Japanese j have evacuated, and tho Russians reoecup.ed, Samuel (north of V eng-lnvung;-cheng). THE CHUNCHUSES. LONDON,. June 3. . Large bodies of Ohunchuses (Chinese ! banditti) are converging on the railway north of Mukdon, under Japanese leaders. RUSSIAN INVALIDS. LONDON, Juno 2. There are five thousand sick Russians at Mukden. RAIDERS IN KOREA. LONDON, June 2. Russian troops raiding southwards of Hamheung, in north-eastern Korea, caused widespread starvation among the people. The raiders are themselves now on the verge of starvation. Tlie Korean officials at Pukcheng, on the coast north-east of Hamheung, fled panic-stricken on the approach of the Russians. YLADIV OSTOCK, LONDON. Juno 2. A doctor at Vladivostok says hospital accommodation is being prepared there for twenty thousand men. If half that number comes, he declares, famine in the place will be acute. THE JAPANESE ARMIES. LONDON, June 2. When the siege train has been landed at Talienwan, General Oko will invest Port Arthur, while the Third Amy Corps and a specially-organised flying column will co-operate with General Kuroki in an advance on Mukden. Ten thousand troops from lakushan, on the east coast of the peninsula and others from elsewhere, have already reinforced General Kuroki. Advices received from Shanghai state that fifteen Japanese transports, carrying upwards of a division of troops, had passed west of Korea towards the mouth oftheYalu. _ » (Received June 3, 10.45 p.m.) LONDON, June 3. Telegrams received at St. Petersburg state that two divisions of General Nodzu’a third army are now landing at Takushan (on the north-east of the Liao-tung peninsula) to reinforce General Oko’s army. This will bring his force up to a hundred and twenty thousand. ~ . The remainder of the Japanese troops now landing are to reinforce General Kuroki who will then command a force of a hundred and forty thousand.

MISCELLANEOUS. LONDON, June 2. French advices state that the battleship Oslabya has been damaged at KronThe newspaper “ Le Matin ” states that purveyors have been instructed to delay the delivery of provisions, coal and material for the Baltic fleet until AugUSt - . June 3. American correspondents state that the Japanese artillery practice is immensely superior to the Russian. Prince Dolgorouki. who married Miss Fleetwood Wilson, and lives in London is an ardent Slavophil and is opposed to Count Lamsdorff’s policy in the la--01 [lt was stated yesterday that acoordin«r to Paris newspapers Prince Dolgorouki had been arrested for assaulting Count Lamsdorff, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs.] THE RUSSIAN COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. General Kouropatkin, who directs the land forces against Japan, has had a long career, and has gained not a few honours as his decorations show. He is a man

of simple tastes and habits, of iron physique, with a proiouud enthusiasm and *a, lu m tao iamie ui luiasiu. lunousO’, too, iiiie so many great soldiers, he is a little man. ills meuious oi accomplishing the gigantic proolein beiore lum will he wuicued with the deepest interest. Ho yarned a reputation lor acidly in Central Asiatic campaigns, and nas won all the Russian decorations lor heroism. Here is an extract irom a character sketch by one who knows him: "In his stocking loot lie stands about five feel and seven inches. lie weighs about twelve stone, and is on the other side of his sixtieth year. He has dark eyes, resembling somewhat the Japanese type, and when he looks at you interestedly you can make no mistake about bojug ‘inspected/ A traction of his one hundred and seventy pounds consists of load; the man has been shot at and hit a number of times; the story is that relics of some of the shots have refused to be dislodged from their resting-places, until recently, he was Russia's Minister of War. He is now Russia's military hope in the conflict with Japan. He is considered the shrewdest and moat capable military expert in tho empire, and he enjoys great popularity among tho soldiers.

In 18U7, General Kouropatkin was Governor-General of Russian Central Asia, popularly called Trans-Caspia. It \ va . s H lore I met him at his home in Aokabad. When Skobeleff—the man who scared the Turcomans until they are a cov/ed advancing Russia’s iron tier lino in Tramj-Caspia, Konropatkm wae his right-tianu assistant. At Cxcok i’epe, not far'from Aakabad, 20,000 slaughtered men, women and children testily to the vengeance which the two men wreaked on their Turcoman antagonists.

When he was made Minister of War, the consensus of opinion among the knowing ones was that an honest man had been given the right job. In Central .-Asm, while he was still Governor-Gen-ial. 1 16 was also considered a very conscientious official. 'He has slaughtered nke a butcher/ an officer said to mo in oamarcand, ‘but his purse carries no counterfeits or crooked winnings/ “It has been said that he hates ‘yellow people, that if he gets tho chance, he will do with the Japanese as ho and Skobelefl did with the Turcomans at ueok Tepe. He did not strike one as be mg a bloodthirsty warrior. ;7*,° one can tell how long the fight wiiii last. Kouropatkin has been through a number of defeats before ho has achieved a victory. For a while we mav hear of his discomfiture in the East. “He is not like Skobeloff, dashing, daring, and quick. His strength lies in careful pretack "° n P Grs * s l° a t and plodding at-