THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 52

THE WEEK.

•' X»nu»m aliud n»tura, aiiud sapientla dixit."— Jtirmu. " Q»oa B»tur« md tooJ iens» muse crer join."— Pars. The great battle of Mukden has ended in the complete rout of General Kourapatkin, with the loss of 500 guns, 20 colours, and over 200,000 men. The Japanese have in addition secured an immense quantity of stores and ammunition, and to all intents and purposes the war in its present stage may be said to be decided in favour of Field-marshal Oyama. It is characteristic of Oyama's modesty that, when congratulated upon his success by the Japanese Minister of War, he replied that his success was due to the Mikado's virtues and the gallantry of the officers and men. The Japanese victory at Mukden is the natural sequel to the capture of Port Arthur, for the release of Nogi and his men from the attack upon that fortress turned the scale, enabling Field-marshal Oyama to acquire that preponderence of force which spelt triumph. The movement aimed at, enveloping the Russian force, so far succeeded that at the crucial moment the Japanese were able to drive a wedge through the Russian centre on the Hunho, thus surrounding Mukden. The Russian retreat then became a rout, the railway was cut seven miles north of Mukden, and a large part of the Russian force, caught in a trap between the wedge and the Japanese left, were severely punished. General Kourapatkin has reached Tie-ling with the shattered remnant of his army, and here it is possible that another stand will be made. But the successive defeats must have had such a disastrous effect upon the morale of the Russian troops that it is difficult to imagine that the stand i can be successful in the face of a strong ! attack delivered by the Japanese forces, now in the full flush of victory. There is much significance in the report that General Kourapatkin has asked the Czar's permission to resign, giving as reason his urgent need of physical and mental rest. It is impossible at this stage to estimate the outcome of this victory, which in more ways than one may b© regarded as decisive. The internal condition of Russia is so highly inflammable that so soon as the true condition of affairs in the East becomes generally known amongst the Russian people, the worst may be feared. At present the news of defeat has been largely suppressed, but it is only a matter of time ere the direful tale is told. If the effect of the fall of Port Arthur was to precipitate the recent disturbances, it may be taken for granted that the Stop-the-War party in Russia will use the Mukden disaster to further their ends. The Japanese papers urge the vigorous prosecution of the war, leaving it for the Russians to initiate peace proposals. This will be a Ibitter pill for the Czar to swallow, but with his army defeated in the Far East, and tis Empire bordering upon a revolution, there I seems to be no other alternative. By their victozy at Mukden the Japanese nation has firmly established its claim to be regarded as one of the Great Powers. They have effectually pricked the Russian bogey, which for so long disturbed the peace of Europe, and they have initiated a movement which is likely to result in the transformation of the map of the world. -Some impressions of the country between Harbin and Port Arthur, Impressions of a distance of 895 versts, or Tic-ling just over 500 miles, conveyed and Mukden, by an English official, who traversed the district shortly before the commencement of the war, are of considerable interest at the present time. The railway passes through the ' i-ichest parts of the Girin and Schon-king ; Provinces, which, far form being a barren district, shows signs of comfort and even wealth pa ©very side. At Ta-iiadoku o I

The Great Battle or ihe War.

I magnificent iron-girder bridge, 800 yds in length, -with granite pierti. winch hold tht> roadway some fifty feet above the stream, spans the River Sungari. This biidge may prove an impor- | tan I factor in the Russian retreat, for i should the biidge be destroyed, the river | jis too deep and swift-running to be j ' forded by an army. South of the Sungari i a-lovely fertile plain is dotted with prosperous villages, where the Chinese are busy in setting out rice or ploughing the rich fc>oil, "which turns xip a. chocolate bro^-n. 1 J?assmg into Qchon-bing Province the considerable town of Chan-Chun is reached, soon after Arhich the traveller comes in sight of Tie-ling, now the temporary headquarters of the Russian army. Tie-ling stands at the great bend to the east of the River Liao, which drains the southern province, falling into the sea at Niu-chwang. I It is the natural commercial artery of South Manchuria, and its commerce is considerable. The Russians endeavoured to divert the current of trade from Niu-chwang to Dalny. Tie-ling is a pretty Chinese town, surrounded by kitchen gardens. In lha distance are blue hills, and near the town walls a handsome pagoda of nine storeys. It is part of the original home of the Manchus, the China of one's childhood's picture book, the Central Flowery Land. Mukden, the ancient Manchu capital. just captured by the Japanese, lies fourteen v miles to the east of the railway, from the station to the city by road being some twenty English miles, over a flat, fertile, but interesting country, which in a few months' time, when the rainy season sets it "will be transformed into a sea of impassable mud. When Napoleon was in Poland he declared that he had discovered a new element, "La Boue*' (the mud) ; but the Polish mud is said to be nothing when compared with the mud of Mukden. While the country all around presents at this time of year the spectacle of a smiling garden, a paradise of luxurious vegetation, there is something melancholy about the city itself. It seems, looking at its double enceinte of castellated and rough bastioned walls, thirty feet higher tlian the plain around, to be mourning for the fate of the "Celestial Pure." It is as if the Ming, whose mausoleum of mastodons and camels near Nankow is so well known, had taken revenge on the Manchu barbarians for ousting them from the Chinese throne. The Mukden of to-day has some two hundred thousand inhabitants ; its two cities are surrounded by two walls ; the outer rampart is of mud, the inner is of rough-hewn stone. On entering, the traveller is impressed with the Chinese aspect of the city. On the railway line, Russian officials, Russian food, Russian samovars, and Russian manners. But once inside the city the Chinese natives scowl at the foreign devil as if they would like to crucify him. In the shops magnificent embroideries and lacquer of the finest ver- j million are on sale. Here, too, may be , found numerous objects of art in jade, j This substance, green or white, is much : similar to nephrite, but even harder and more difficult to carve. It is greatly appreciated all over China, and a piece which would fall to the hammer in Christie's famous action room in London for ten or fifteen guineas would probably fetch a hundred pounds in Mukden or in Pekin. A recent cable message announces that Field-marshal Oyama has forbidden masses of the Japanese troops to enter Mukden, in order that due respect may be shown to the Imperial tombs. Here the Japanese conquerors evince a regard for the Chinese reverence for their ancestors ruthlessly trampled upon by the Russians. During the Russian occupation the city of Mukden has had a chequered history. At first it was decided that out of consideration for the feelings of the Chinese Imperial family it should not be occupied, and the Russian general was content with taking up a post of observation near the town. The inhabitants showed themselves fairly friendly to the troops, but a Russian soldier who, under the influence of drink, had made himself obnoxious in the city was seized and imprisoned by the Chinese police. Next morning he was brought before the mandarin, who, dealing with him as he would with one of his own people, ordered him to be crucified on the west gate of the city wall, and the -cruel order was promptly carried out. The next day some early Russian visitors to the city were horrified to see the boly of their cofrade nailed to the great door, his white tunic reddened by streaks of blood. General Grodekoff, then in command of the troops in the district, enraged at what he considered a deliberate insult to his religion and his country, handed the town over to a three days' pillage. The soldiers, burning to avenge the death of their comrade, burst into the town, murdering every Chinaman seen in the streets. Bursting into the palace, they scattered the rich silks, the pearls, the brocades, the rare bronzes. Documents hundreds of years old, priceless to science, recording the history of a vanished, age, were burnt or trampled under foot. Jade from Kashgar, furniture that Riesener might have envied, incense burners in exquisite cloisonne I enamel, were sold by the soldiers for a few kopecks apiece. After the three days' sack the Russians retired from the city, and the Chinese ever since have scarcely dared to raise their eyes from the ground. Some months later the Chinese mandaiin§, taking heart, condemned to dieath a briganl who had committed countless murders, but who had invoked Russian protection. The Chinese were ordered to stay the executioner's hand, but the man had aheady been beheaded. Thereupon the Russian commander ordered a re-occupation of Mukden, a measure which is said to hav® enraged the Dowager-Empress of China to j a greater extent than any incident since ' the desecration of Pekin. Ever since the ' sense of the injustice under which they have laboured has been rankling in the Chinese mind, and it is easy to imagine hftw the inhabitants of tlis citj »ill hail

The Rnssian Occupation of Mukden.

the Japanese as their deliverers from the cruel yoke of the oppres-or. The retribution of time i« continually confronting the student of history, and nowhere is it more strikingly exemplified than in the capture of Mukden by the Japanese. The mausoleum of the founder of the great Manchu dynasty lies some eight, miles outside the city walls, and is said to be a splendid stractuie, the grave he'mg a mountain, under which the COVpse reposes. But in the city is the imposing palace, vrith its splendid halls, carved stone entrances, and marble monsters ; and here the imagination pictures the spirits of the conquerors of China stalking in solitude. They have practically passed a-vray in the last two centuries, for the Ming dynasty was overthrown in 1644, and Kwang-kang-hsi the Great, the second of the Manchu Emperors, and the man who in every way fills the largest place in Chinese history, reigned for 61 years. In fancy we can call up the spirits of Yung-tschen, the persecutor of the Christians; Kyen-lung, conqueror of the Eleuts. Turkestan, and Thibet ; Kya-king, the vicious ; Tao-kwang, the deceiver ; Shyen-fen, under whom the foreign devils took Peking and burned the Summer Palace; — they are all at Mukden. Their Chinese subjects, indifferent as to who rules them, called out to them, '" Wan suwe" (Live and reign 10,000 years). Their time has ended in two brief centuries. But in Mukden — in their own marble palace, with its tiled pagodas, the roofs dark with age, supported with wooden pillars cut from such trees as to rival columns of marble and stone — paced, until a few days ago, the Russian conquerors of China. And now in turn the Russian has been conquered. What, we wonder, would be the feelings of Kang-shi, in whose presence the Ambassadors of the Grand Duke of Muscovy entered only on bended knee, or of Kyen-lung, who forced the Russians to give up the very bones of the Eleut chief who had taken refuge in their territory? A visitor to that palace seems to hear in the great dark roof above the sighs of the spirits of the famoits ancestors of the Chinese Imperial family, called from their rest by the sound of the tramp of the Slav in their own palace, the cradle of their race, the joy of many kings. And to cany the fancy further, is it not possible that these great and mighty spirits may be once more lulled to rest by the " Ban-zai !" of the victorious Japanese and the sounds of the discomfiture and retreat of the baffled Slavs? Who can tell whether the Japanese may not be instrumental in restoring some of the lost olories of the great Manchu dynasty ? And who will dare prophesy what such restoration may mean to the European Powers? From tha investigations made by Professor Kirk, the Government Biologist, it is evident that the ravages of the potato disease extend from Auckland to the Bluff, and that few of the crops sown, this year will escape without some percentage of damage. The appearance of the disease in the colony is doubtless due to the unusually wet season, and it is suggested that if we are treated next year to comparatively dry weather the dis.ease will disappear, except perhaps in certain swamp lands. Potato-growers are just now carefully watching to see whether crops of the newly-imported; disease-resisting varieties are proving true to their name — indeed, in some instances the new var^ies are turning out as susceptible to ci ase as any of the older sorts. In this the experience in England during the wet season of 1903 is but being repeated. For instance, the potato which at the time of the second famine in Ireland was to be the salvation of Irish potato culture was the Champion ; but, however celebrated as disease-resisters this variety may have been, experts are agreed that now they are quite useless in this respect. Another potato which made a name as a disease-resister was the Up-to-Da-te, but this potato (in England in 1903) showed signs which caused growers to fear that it also had had its day. Just now the Northern Star is being watched closely in this colony, and the reports on its progress in disease-infected areas will be valuable data. In the minds of many potato-growers the rea&on why new varieties have shown such speedy degeneration in the face of the disease is the circumstances under which they are propagated. The recent boom *in potatoes, causing fabulous prices — as much as £5 for a single eye — to be paid for certain varieties, has caused cultivators to be dissatisfied with the ordinary means of propagation. Amongst the means taken to increase stock are the ta-king of cuttings from young plants, which are stuck in sand, and the effect of such methods is to weaken the strain, and consequently the disease-resisting powers of the tuber. It has been urged that the whole question of the propagation and cultivation of the potato should be investigated by the Imperial Government, with a view to the production of a true disease-resisting tuber. Wp, in our turn, may venture the hope that Mr Kirk "will be able to put forth soxne theory as to fhe reason for the wholesale spread of thei disease in this colony, together with some hints as to its prevention in the future. At present, apparently, the only thing to be done is to sprajr in eases where the disease has only just made its appearance, an 1 where more advanced to cut off the- tops of the plant. It goes without saying that the bulk of the crop will be dug this year before the tubers axe property ripe, in the hope of. saving them. The probability is that before the end of tli 3 season really sound and good potatoes will be worth high puces. The fact that the Trades Disputes Bill has been read for the second TlieLiahilitj tune in the House of Comoi" Trade mons by a. majority of Unions, 122 indicates the growingpower of tracks unionism in the United Kingdom. Tho ieal bone of contention in the bill is ilixk it protects

trade union funds against the lecovery of damages owing, to the action of its membors, and it is exceedingly doubtful m hether, in its present shape, it will be allowed to become law. It may be remembeied that by a series of decisions, beginning with Allen v. Flood in 1897, and ending with Quinn v. Leatham in 1901, the House of Loids, the highest Court of Appeal, entirely changed what had been heretofore consicler-ed the legal position of trades unions. The most far-reaching of these decisions, and the one which gives importance to all the others, that in the case of the Taff Tale Railway Company v. the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. There had been a dispute between the railway company and many of its employees. A strike took place, which was sanctioned by the governing body of the trade union, and was conducted by its authorised officers. It was alleged that, in furtherance of the strike, some of the agents of the trade union had committed unlawful acts — and incited others to commit them, — to the injury and damage of the railway company. Instead of prosecuting in a criminal court the persons alleged to have been guilty of these offences, the company applied to the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice for an injunction to restrain from committing such acts, not only certain of the persons implicated, but also the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants itself. The company also commenced a civil suit against the society, in its corporate capacity, claiming a large sum as damages for -what were alleged to be its wrongful acts. In their judgment the Law Lords expressed the A T iew that not only an injunction, but also a mandamus could be issued against a ti'ade union ; that a registered trade union could be sued in its registered name ; that even an unregistered union might be made collectively liable for damages, and might be sued in the names of its proper' officers, the members of its Executive Committee, and its trustees ; that the corporate funds of a trade union could be made answerable for costs arid damages, even if they were in the hands of trustees ; and that the trustees of trade union funds might be joined as parties to a suit against the trade union, or might be separately proceeded against for recovery of damages and costs awarded against their trade union, whether registered or not. This is the law which the trades unionists seek to have amended, and the argument for its amendment is thus clearly put in the introduction to the 1902 edition of Webb's Industrial Democracy, to which authority we are indebted for the foregoing summary of the scope of the Taff Vale judgment : — " It is not fair to workmen to try indirectly to put down strikes by making trades unions liable for damages for what is incidental to a strike. It is handing them over to the employers with their hands tied. Trade unions have, therefore, a good claim for an alteration of the law. The two millions of trades unionists, comprising probably one-fifth of the national electorate, will certainly not consent to give up the enforcement of the common rules determining standard minimum wages and other conditions throughout each trade. In this policy they will be supported by all working class opinion, and will be acting in accordance with the teachings of economic science." The significance of the division in the House of Commons is that it was taken with tne shadow of the coming general election hanging over it. It is possible that in Great Britain, as in Australia, the next election may be largely decided upon such issues as trades unionism and socialism. Hop-picking at Nelson has begun. Reports state that the crop has improved wonderfully during th*j last month, and in many gardens it will be well up to the average, though on the whole there will ■be a shortage-. A recent discovery which is guaranteed to cure drunkenness ha® been placed in the. hands of Mr J. W. Copithorne, Ingestre street, Wellington. Mr Copithorne -will bs glad to send particulars, price, etc., to alll inquirers.

M.Z. brcss. Cq.

Tlie Imperial Tombs os Mukden.

TJieLiabilitj of Trade Unions,

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