GENERAL NOGI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7706, 7 January 1905, Page 3

GENERAL NOGI.

"I am glad that ho died so splendidly. It was tho greatest honour he could have." The speaker was General Nogi. It was the day of the battle of Nansbnn, and the news was brought to him at Tokio that by Oku's victory the Japanese held the neck of Linotungi FenijMula, and that among the slain was his eldest son, Lieutenant Nogi Shoten. Upon that day—the 27th of May—the father was honoured as well as the son, for the Mikado conferred upon him the command of the forces besieging Port Arthur. This fortress is full of sentiment to all the Japanese race, and tot be commander of the forces there is, therefore, one of the greatest honours in the gift of the Emperor, General Nogi enjoys the honour of being a model soldier according to the most rigorous and ancient standard. He was for some j'ears Governor-General of Formosa, which was ceded to Japan by China after the war. In this capacity he jhad to deal with peculiarly untamed 'peoples, whose methods of guerilla warfare fundi whose innocence of anything but absolute savagery required the greatest skill and fighting quality to combat. The satisfaction which General Nogi must feel at subduing Ms enemy will be tempered by the bereavement ho has suffered. Not only was his eldest son slain at Nanshan, but in the stormin a of Metre Hill his only surviving son was amongst the killed. — '. ' V