RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 12868, 29 May 1905, Page 2

RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.

TWO JAPANESE COMPANIES ANNIHILATED,

liINEVITCH AND KUEOPATKIN. \

IS THE BIG BATTLE AT HAND ? I United Press Asaociaiion. — By Electric ] Telegraph.— Copyright. f London, May 27. General Linovitch reports lhat Genoral Mistchenko, with portions of the Caxicasian Brigade and detachments \ of tho Trans-Baikal Cossacks, attacking- the heights southward of JPakumen, on' the 19th, annihilated two Japanese companies, and captured one company, two machine g % uns, and 234 prisoners, including five officers. The Times says the St. Petersburg news that Russian troops are about to enter Mongolia to check tho supposed Japanese flanking movement causes consternation among diplomatisrtfs, who fear it is the first step to tho annexation of Chinese territory. Russia is pressing the Chinese- Government to draw the 1 frontier at twenty instead of sixty miles \v«st of J Tiehling, in order to restrict Japaneseoperations. Russian correspondents in Manchuria complain that although the Japanese cavalry appeared twenly miles northwest of Kuntuling, near the Russian

headquarters, General Kuropa'tldn, who refused to surrender his luxurious train to General Linevit/;h, indulges in constant pleasuring with Princo»s Reuss and other Russian ladies parading as Red Cross nurses. There is much evidence that neither the army nor ihe nation lias a»y heart for further war. General Linevitch abstains from all frivolities. | The Taotai (or Chinese Magistrate) ordered the volunteer fleet, which is 'suspected of irying to load coal, to . leave Wusung within 24 hours. The , Russians ignored the protest, alleging thai Japanese merchantmen arrive daily at Shanghai. Reuter^s Tokio correspondent reports I that "the transmission of all information regarding to-day's historical 1 fevents in the Korean Straits is refused." ! Admiral Ro2hdessvensky, in passing Tsushima, Korea Straits, ordered the formation of two columns of battle- 1 ships, "with the gunboats to starboard 1 and the cruisers to port. Seventeen of Admiral Rozhd?stvensky's ships anchored off Saddle Islands on Thursday night. It is believed they coaled before proceeding north. I Thrte* British steamers, loaded with coal for Hongkong, have been detainj eel at Mowji.