WAR.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXII, Issue 3680, 28 March 1904, Page 4

WAR.

JAPANESE LAND OPERATIONS. READY TO ADVANCE. London, March 24. The Daily Express’s Nagasaki correspondent Bays details of the main advance have been completed. Great forced marches will be made on Harbin, starting from the mouth of the Tung River, below Possiet Bay. Heavy columns are concentrated north of Pingyang for an offensive movement against the line of the Yalu. River. The foremost Japanese force occupies a front from Anju to Muchkionsar. The Daily Mail states the difficulties of procuring supplies renders it improbable for more than ninety thousand to land in Corea. The Russians are building pontoons at Wijn. It is rumoured fchat the Vladivostock Squadron has been ordered to meet in the Pacific to intercept the Chilian cruisers purchased by Russia. Akeyama, a,member of the House of Representatives and editor of a Radical paper, has been impeached at Tokio as a Russian spy and his newspaper suppressed, A Corean edict declares Yongampho an open port. Katsura informed the Japanese Diet that the Japanese policy was the establishment of permanent peace in the Par East, and the consolidation of Japan’s position by promoting friendly relations with the powers by respecting their rights. - PORT ARTHUR BLOCKED. TYPHOID EPIDEMIC AMONGST THE JAPS. WHITE BOOK DISCLOSURES. CHINESE OFFICIALS AND SOLDIERS ORDERED OUT OF MANCHURIA. London, March 25. The Soda Maru, a Japanese steamer with 6000 tons of i-ot.l on board, after evading the Russian cruisers has arrived at Capetown. Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, who ig in command on the China station interviewed at Yokohama st; .ed the chief lesson of the war w as the success of the destroyers. The Chemulpho action was fought at a range of 7400 yards, proving the valne of heavy guns in minimising the efficiency of secondary batteries. Twenty per cent of the shots'took effect compared with three per cent in the engagement off Santiago, in the Spanish American war. He was not surprised at the Japanese successes and anticipated the surrender and destruction of the Port Arthur fleet. A Harbin telegram states that only twenty thousand troops have arrived there within forty days. Much confusion prevails. America refuses to agree to Russia’s suggestion for the neutral isation of Ninchwang, considering that Niuchwang is as much within the zone of hostilities as Port Arthur. Several German newspapers are alarmed at the friendlier tone of the leadiog section of the Russian press towards Britain and the attacks on Germany. The newspaper Krenz Zeitung complains that this is an ill-requital of Germany’s benevolent neutrality, enabling the frontier to be denuded of troops. Finding that the Hamheung insurrection was due to official extortion, the Japanese baye released all except the ringleaders. Major-General Baron Kodama is leaving Tokio shortly to take supreme command of operations. General Kuropatkin has crossed Lake Baikal. The Yaryag’s sailors, wearing clothing and caps the gifts of British blue-jackets, have passed Suez. Forty Cossacks at Kangkeni, a hundred miles north-east of Gensan, where two Korean battalions are stationed, demanded the barracks, but the Koreans offered them the use of another building. A quarrel over the matter led to a tight, in which 35 Cossacks and seventeen Koreans were killed and twenty Koreans wounded. The Daily Telegraph's Tokio correspondent reports that sixteen warships on Tuesday night escorted seven merchant steamers, under cover of the bombaidment were gunk across the entrance to Port

Arthur. Three thousand Japanese volunteered for this service. Admiral Togo reports that his fleet was not injured in the resent bombardment. He states that five Russian battleships, four cruisers, and destroyers came out of the harbour, apparently trying to draw his vessels nearer the forts. Many of their shells fell near the battleship Fuji, The Russian army medical men assert that there is a typhoid epidemic amongst the Japanese troops near Seoul and Pingyang. The Japanese have reached Tebita and the Cossacks have occupied Mussan. Prince Alatsin, ruler of Mongolia, has commanded his subjects to maintain neutrality, thereby rendering illegal the present large sales to Russia of ponies, provisions, and fodder. A German system of wireless telegraphy has been sent to Lake Baikal. A White Book issued shows that the last Japanese Note offered to recognise Manchuria as outside her political sphere, provided Russia recognised that Korea as outside hers. This concession seems to have convinced Russia that Japan would sacrifice anything instead of fighting. The Times’ Niuchwang correspondent states that the river ice broken up. Admiral Alexieff has renewed the demand that all Chinese officials and soldiers be withdrawn from Manchuria. Russia denies that Japanese have crossed the Tatung heights. RUSSIAN 'oRUISErTbLOWN UP. A SPY EXECUTED. London, March 25. German advices state a Japanese mine destroyed the cruiser Bayan (7800 tons), and not the destroyer Skori. The majority of the crew perished. The employment of the Retvisan as a stationary battery has seriously loosened her plates. The dismantling of the Russian gunboat Mandjur is persistently delayed, and a Japanese cruiser is Still delayed at Woosong. Mr Davidson, the American Consul, has arrived at Shanghai, and proceeds to Antung in a week. The Japanese executed a Korean for acting as a Russian spy at Pingyang. Admiral Wirenus has been ordered to stay St Piraeus (in the Mediterranean) until arrangements have been made for the supply of coal from the Russian colliers. Herculean efforts are being made to prepare the Baltic fleet to sail for the East in July, coaling from transports en route. Melbourne, March 26. Colonel Hoad has been appointed Australian military attache with the Japanese army. He leaves for the front on Tuesday.