WAR-SCARRED PORT ARTHUR TO-DAY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10243, 4 September 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAR-SCARRED PORT ARTHUR TO-DAY.

(By Frank G. Carpenter.)

- Port Arthur, Manchuria, 1909 —I spent this morning on Quail liill, where tne Japanese are erecting a memorial in honor of their heroes who died at Port Arthur. This hill is a saddleshaped elevation which rises to a height of 1000 or more feet out of the arena of the amphitheatre in which Port Arthur, is located. It faces the narrow entrance to the harbor where the Japanese and Russian gunboats showered shells upon one 'another, and about it may be seen the hills forming the.rim of the ampitheatre upon which were the fortifications taken one by one by the Japanese during the siege. Quail Hill from now on will be called Monument Hill. It is a fitting site to mark the glorious victory of the soldiers of the jUiiiado.- It overlooks Uolden Hill and The Tiger's Tail, which with their fortifications protect the harbor entrance, and it is the first elevation to be seen coining in from the sea. It is right upon its top that tlic monument is now going up. A great temple of silver grey granite, it will be about 300 feet high and will cost almost £60,000. Tne stone for it is coming by the shipload from Bhimonoseki, Japan, and hundreds of huge granite blocks are now scattered about the harbor and at the foot of the hill. Many of them.areas large as a library table, and not a few weigh several tons each. A cable road has been constructed from the harbor to the site of the monu- j rnent, and a steam engine drags up the j blocks on low cars.

The monument is already about onethird completed. The pedestal has been iiiu.-hi;d and the first series of lonic columns erected. The scaffolding about the structure can be seen for miles around Port Arthur, and the monument will command both land and sea. When I visited it to-day Chinese masons were chiselling at the stones and the great blocks were rapidly rising into place, The work is being done by Manchurian-Chinese, under Japanese overseers.

I have visited the world's most famous monuments, from tlio mighty shaft to 'Washington, which rises from the base of the Potomac in Now York, and the great sarcophagus of Napoleon in Paris, to the gigantic bounders on the lihodesian Hiils, which mark, the grave of Cecii Rhodes, but I have seen nothing so impressive as this. At one end of the mighty elevation stands the monument; and at the other end, perhaps eight hundred feet distant, is a Shinto shrine of this same silver grey granite, under which lie the bones of more than twenty-two thousand Japanese soldiers, who were hilled at Port Arthur; The platform upon which the shrine stands is reached through a great copper bronze torii; and at each side of the latter is a granite lantern, like those one sees at Nikko and about the other shrines of Japan. The stone platform must be more than one hundred feet square, although the shrine itself is comparatively small. These two monuments cover the whole top of the hili. They are reached by military roads, which wind their way up the mountain, arid also by steps for foot passengers..Come • with me to the Trout of -the monument and take a bird's eye view of the battlefields of Port Arthur, as they lie here in this quiet year of our Lord, 1903. "We are right in the midht of the amphitheatre in which, for eight months, day and night, went on the greatest gladiatorial show the world has yet known. Just under us is the harbor in which were the Russian gunboats ; and on its shores are the old and new towns which were occupied by the soldiers during the siege. On that sea, outside, lay the blockading Japanese squadron sending its strieking shells at the ships and the city. On the hills all about us were Prussian soldiers, and on their opposite sides, the Japanese armies, crawling and ploughing and tunnelling their way to the forts. The story of how, inch "by inch, every bit of the ground was fought over and how at last, was successful has been told in song and story; and you may find it to-day in the books de scribing the war. I doubt, however, whether any such .story can show the real wonders of the defence and- attack ; or the heroism of both bodies of troops. - . The country about here is much like the bare Mils of Montana or Colorado. It is dry and thirsty. There is no vegetation except scanty grass, with here and there a bit of scrub oak. The lighting was all in the open, and the fortifications had to be thrown up out of rock, gravel, and disintegrated stone. The tunnels made by the Japanese were not through earth, bat through rock, and in undermining the forts they could go but a few feet a day. Nevertheless, while overlooking these hills one sees scores of miles of such trenches. The work on the embankments reminds you of cue great Chinese wall, and the hundred miles and more of military roads which the Russians built to reach their various fortifications impress one with the vast sums which they spent, all in vain. Their forts were of concrete, reinforced with iron, and they embrace a circle of more than ten miles. They made Port Arthur the strongest fortress ever besieged. To-day all of the forts erected for land defence are in ruins. The Japanese do not intend to repair them, and the only work they are doing is upon those facing the sea. They have added to and strengthened the fortresses on Golden Hill and the Tiger's Tail, and they prohibit strangers from visiting the battlefields along the coast. As to the other parts of Port Arthur one may go anywhere, provided he,leaves his camera at home. There are scores of droschkies which were brought in by the Russians, and are now owned by Chinese. These are hauled-by little Mancburian ponies, and they will take you all over the country at Is an hour or for a little more than 8s a day. -During my stay here I have visited many of the battlefields and have tramped over "the hills where the severest fighting took place. The grounds are scarred by iron shot and the face of old Mother Earth has been pockmarked by the siege. The terrors of the siege are. shown by the museum in Port Arthur. The Government has collected relics from the various ad placed them in a big building outside the old town. They have made models of the forts, which show the devilish ingenuity that' both the Japanese and Russians used in destroying one another. There are great coils of barbed wire which was scattered over-the hillsides. The wire was connected with powerful batteries inside the fortifications, aud such soldiers as blundered again it in the dark were sure to be killed. There were twenty kinds of hand grenades, filled with nitro-glycerine. They look like miners' lamps, but when thrown they really lit the way to death. The museum has every kind of shell, from some as high as one's shoulder down to little fellows the size of your finger. It has Japanese flags which the Russians-.used to entice their enemies within reach of their'guns, and a Jar panese kite which' they used to test the wind before sending up their balloons. It has pieces of silk which they employed : during the latter part of the siege I to make saiidbags, and steel picks of all kinds, from new ones, fresh from the stores, down to some which are worn to the length of one's"thumb by digging the rocks in the fort tunnels. Much of the fighting was hand to hand. In tunnelling into the forts the' Japanese and the Russians were often close to another, and they remained so for days, separated only by ramparts of sandbags. As I looked at one of the forts a Japanese officer pointed out a tunnel in which he said he had fought for several day with his fellows, the Russians being, on the other side of the wall, so close that the troops could hear one another talk. Said the officer:

"We joked with each other, using one of our men as interpreter, and we even passed brandy and tohacco over the sandbags." "Pow did the Russians fight P" I asked*

"They fought bravely, but the odds were against them in that their common soldiers did not know what they were fighting for. They did not care for Manchuria, and they had no faith in their Emperor. Every Japanese esteemed it an honor to die for his country and the most of lis would rather hare died than been defeated." "But would not the Russians have beaten you if the war had gone on much longer?' "I do not .know," was the reply, We were in a bad way when.the hostilities were suspended. -Our money was almost used up, and it is doubtful if we could have kept on fighting. Indeed, we owe everything to your I President Roosevelt. It was his offer [ of peace that saved us, and I can tell you we appreciate his work at that time. The Japanese worship him, and if he ever visits Japan we will just kill 1 him with kindness in showing our gratitude." Just here I would say that I have heard many such expressions concerning Theodore Roosevelt. He is a hero of the Japanese, and they cannot speak of him too highly. His biographies, printed in their language, have been sold by the thousands, and even the school children know all about him. The Port Arthur of to-day makes me think of one of the inflated towns of our great west after its boom has exploded. Just before the war began the Russians were preparing to make it one of the finest cities of Asia. They had erectexl enormous buildings for their officials and were putting up residences to correspond. Merchants and other private citizens were doing likewise. New structures were going up everywhere, and houses of fifty and sixty rooms were being erected. In the new town, which formed the Russian residence section, - a dozen of so of such buildings, with the scaffolding about them, are still to be sit-a. Some are finished to the roofs and others to the floors only. They have not been touched since the war and are going to ruin.

Such, residences as were completed can now be rented for a few dollars a month. Just opposite _my. hotel stands a brick house of three stories which contains fifty rooms. It probably cost £15,000 to build, and it could be rented to-day for £lO a month. Adjoining it is another residence which is still larger. It is occupied at a rental of £7. On a hill behind me are the foundations of "a Russian cathedral which if completed, would be as large as any church building in the United States. It was aboutready for the walls when the war occurred and it was stopped for ever. A new hotel which had been erected in the old city was turned into a hospital during the siege. It is now the property of the Japanese Red Cross Society, and is used as a hospital for the Japanese. I had a talk with an official who was here when Port Arthur fell. He tells me that the Russians were crazy to get away, and that furniture of every kind went for a song. Said he: "Sofas, tables and chairs could be had for the asking, and grand pianos brought £5 apiece. Costly hangings were thrown out into the streets, and some of the houses were set afire by their owners. After we took possession I found our soldiers tearing up valuable books, and using them for fuel or"■throwing them out into the .snow, and I besought the general in charge to allow me to go through the town and save the libraries, lie did so, and as he saw how many books there were gave me a- detail of soldiers to bring them in. We collected altogether about 20,000 volumes. Most of them were in Russian, but there were a thousand' or so in French and English. Several hundred were in Italian, and some Chinese and Japanese. There were nine sets of encyclopedias, all Russian or German, and a great many musical books. The Russians had every luxury here. They lived well and at the close even better than we Japanese; for by the terms of our capitulation we gave them fresh moat, although -wc Were- living on canned stuffs ourselves. Nevertheless we could not satisfy them." The Port Arthur of Russia was far different from that of Japan. In the old days there were soldiers everywhere.' Military officers, dressed in big caps and long coats, swaggered through the streets. _ There was a large garrison, everything was booming and money and drink flowed like water. A circus building was erected in which all sorts of shows were held, and there were famous cafes and restaurants. To-day the circus has been turned into a bazaar, and about two score Japanese women sell all sorts of goods at the booths within it. The soldiers have disappeared. The Japanese have only one regiment here, and nothing like as many troops are to be seen as in the towns of Korea or even Japan. As far as business is concerned, the city is dead. It consists of about 5,000 Manchurian Chinese, and the military and civil officials of the Japanese government. The Chinese do the rough work of Port Arthur. Many of them are now engaged in getting out the blocks of stono with which the Russians sank their merchant vessels when they knew that Port Arthur must fall. More than thirty ships were destroyed in that way; some thousand stone blocks being used for the purpose. The Japanese are sending these blocks home for their public schools. One will be erected as a monument in each playground to keep alive the memory of the heroes of Port Arthur.

At the same time I find a kindly feeling for the Russians among the Japanese. They have erected a little granite temple with a Greek cross upon its top as a monument to the dead among their enemies who fell at Port Arthur. This is situated on a low hill about two miles from the city, and surrounding it are the graves of thousands of Russian soldiers. There is a brick wall enclosing several acres about the monument. In this space the officers are buried, the graves of each being marked with a stone or iron cross. Outside on the slopes of the hill stands a thicket of white wooden crosses rising to the height of a man's shoulder, and marking the graves of the privates. The inscriptions on the monuments are in Japanese and Russian, and they state that the memorial was erected by the. Emperor of. Japan in honor of the bravery of his great enemy, the Russians.