RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXX, Issue 8683, 7 January 1905, Page 1

RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

[By Electric Telegraph.—CorvnionT.]

(Per Press Association.) Received January 6, at 9.3 p.m. London, January 6. ! General Nogi reports that the transfer ■wt Port- Arthur is completed. The surrender,-! number 32,207. exclusive of 16,000 sick and wuunded. The prisoners include eijht icneraJs, four admirals, 57 colonels arid majors. 100 naval captains and commanders, 531 army captains and lieutenants. 200 naval lieutenants and naval officers' 109 surgeons, 20 chaplains, 22,434 army rank and file, 4500 naval rank and file. 4145 non-combatants connected with the armv and navy, also 100 saddle and 1870 dra'ught horses. The majority of the volunteers" are included amongst the noncombatants. Received January 6. at 9.10 p.m. London, January 6. The Paris edition of the New York Herald publishes a- St. Petersburg rumor that the battleship Kniaz Suvaroif, of the Baltic licet, struck a rock and sank. It states that, a later telegram confirms the The Daily Express reports that the Imperial Council, the- Czar presiding, decided to continue the war energetically, reinforcing General Kuropatkin with 200,000 men by" the end of February. The Express states that- the Council decided to rect'l the Baltic fleet, St, Petersburg, January 6.

The "aieties at St. Petersburg are unslackened by the fall of Port Arthur. The press denounces society's callousness. Received January 6, at 9.37 p.m. London, January 6.

The Andromeda has returned to Wai-hai-wei. the Japanese refusing to allow her to enter Port- Arthur on the" ground that the Russian mines are undiscovered. They also declined all assistance- in drugs and provisions. It, is expected that the wounded will be nursed at Port Arthur. Thousands of lives are likely to 'be saved when drugs and appliances are available. General Nogi is recruiting hordes of Chinese coolies in order to re-fortify Port Arthur, eliminating all the Russians' weaknesses. Vast quantities of cement, timber and iron have accumulated at the, Yalu for the purpose. _ The- Czar has cabled thanking General Stoesse.l and the brave defenders. Jlr Be-nnet Burleigh reports that- the Japanese believe that Admiral Togo will encounter the Baltic fleet off Amoy. Received January 7, at 0.30 a.m. London, January 6. The sinking of the Kniaz Suvaroff is officially denied. RUSSIAN GENERALS IN MANCHURIA. Anions the Russian generals in Manchuria- are. Sakharoff, Masloff, Thep«ff, Ivanoff, Danilotf, Geychellmann, Rennenkampf.'Kharkevitch, Kondratovitch, Gilinski. Kashtalinski, Kricinski, and many others. This crowd of brilliant actors of the Far Eastern drama is as heterogeneous as possible. Amongst them you can rind persons of all nationalities—Poles, Germans, Esthonians, Southern and Northern Russians, Cossacks, and men from the Caucasus; of all religions—excepting j <A vs—Orthodox. Catholics, Protestants, and Mahommedaii; of all ages, from 30 to 70; ..f all extractions, from the peasant to highest nobility. You ran find generals who- have- risen from the ranks (Misehenkoi : and others who have been educated in the most aristocratic cadet corps of Russia, Some have been through the Turkish wars, while others have never commanded so much as a battalion. Some of them are entrusted with importantduties, while others have not succeeded hi getting any command at all, and live idly at headquarters more or less satisfied with their extra campaigning allowances. Others there-- are who have already shown their incapacity, and have been obliged to resign, but- are tolerated at headquarters, where they receive fidl pay, and live in tiie hope thai they wii'l still have a, chance. -Some generals ride like Centaurs —Rcnnenkampf, for example—others aro not able to sit- on. a horse, and others have broken their legs because they did attempt it. There are those- who have been in the thickest- of the fight—-Sasonoff, for instance —and others who are not at home upon the battlefield, or have given all the orders during a, battJe from their railway saloon. Some are not able to read a map, and others are men of learning, and clever trenerals. but you can count the latter on the live fingers of one hand. Some have given great trouble to the Japanese gonei'ais. and others have given trouble only to correspondents, Chinamen, and their brother generate. There are some who are honest- and poor, like Daniloff, and others who apply all the powers of their mind, not- to fighting, but to .making as much money as they can out of the present war by all sorts of dishonest means. Few do their woTk honestly and thoroughly: the greater part are negligent, dissolute, and do not care about the war except in so far as their personal interests are concerned. It is known that there are cases in which important papers were lost, and the general staff did not know the location of the troops (this happened after the fall of the Taling Pass); cases when despatches were sent, to regiments in places whero they had never been (as occurred to the 12th Siberian Regiment), and cases in which trains with stores and ammunition weresent to positions which were in the enemy's •hands. With a commander-in-chief like KuTopatkin, who has not hitherto possessed an unchallenged authority, with a Court which interferes with discipline, and in whose eyes favor alone is a reason for promotion-, "and finally with the heterogeneous composition of the headquarters staff, the Russian' army is necessarily the worst led in the world. LESSONS OF THE SIEGE. Military experts hope that when, full details of the great siege of Port Arthur become available for deliberate study much fresh light will be thrown on many branches of military science. It- is generally conceded that the branch which will probably reap the most benefit is that of fortification. An English military expert, discussing this matter, points out that the troops which held Kimberley, Ladysmith, and Mafeking during the South African war occupied hastily improvised field defences, which ware improved by spade and pickaxe as the investments progressed. Even Plevna itself was but a. great military camp covered by field entrenchments. Prior to the siege of Port Arthur no example of the attack and defence of a fortress covered by permanent works has, in fact, occurred since the Franco-German war of 1870-1. The students of permanent fortification since that date have, therefore, had to rely almost entirely on theory in grappling with the changed conditions consequent upon the very great improvement in armament which has taken place dtir--1 ing the last- three or four decades. The experiences of the 1870 campaign showed that the old system of fortifications, which were in a. great measure dependent on a powerful enceinte, were obsolete; but two divergent schools of thought- arose to contest what should replace thom. The one favored the girdling of the- area- to be protected with a. circle of powerful forts manned with heavy armament, within supporting distance of each other and situated at a distance of 5000 yards or 6000 yards from the centre of the fortress. The other argued that these forts would be mere shell trans, and would be rapidly demolished by the besiegers' guns. They pointed out, moreover, that a fortress cannot l*e i turned or outflanked, and that frontal atj tack against even a slightly entrenched position defended by modem rifles and j machine guns would be so costly as to be almost impossible.