Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1904 — POWDER TO BORN [ARTICLE]

POWDER TO BORN

Seems To Be the Situation with the Japanese Ships of War. THEY POP AWAY AT PORT ARTHUR

For a Few Hours and Then Disappear to the Unknown.

M&karoff Claims to Have Disabled a Battleship—Russians Lose Five Killed and Nine Wounded on Shore.

London, March 23. A correspondent of The Times at Tokio, under yesterday’s date, cables that it is rumored that the Japanese have succeeded In blockading the entrance to Port Arthur.

London, March 23. A dispatch to the Reuter's Telegram company from 8t Petersburg says: “Japanese torpedo boats appeared off Port Arthur at midnight of the night of March 2122, and the shore batteries and guardships shelled them for twenty minutes. The Japanese retreated, but reappeared four hours later, when they met with the same reception, and they retired again.

Rmslin Squadron Satis Ont.

“At 0 a. m. [March 22] a Japanese squadron of two divisions, composed of four and eleven ships, respectively, and accompanied by eight torpedo boats, appeared, and the Russian squadron sailed out from the outer roadstead to meet them. No further details regarding the action are obtainable. At 9 a. m. the Japanese battleship, having fired several shots at Llaotisbin and sheltered behind the promontory, commenced a bombardment of Port Arthur.”

Entrenchment! St Anju.

St Petersburg, March 23. The following dispatch has been received from Viceroy Alexieff, dated Mukden, March 22: “General Mistehenkow reports that on March 17 our scouts approached Anju and observed on the left bank of the Cheng Cheng river, opposite Anju, entrenchments made by the enemy. Up to that date the enemy had not appeared at Yong Pyon, fifteen miles northeast of Anju. It is supposed that there is one Japanese division at Anju and that the remainder of the first army corps is at Ping Yang.

Jap* Decline u Engagement.

“In consequence of the report that two squadrons of the enemy had arrived at Pak Chong, fifteen miles northwest of Anju, 200 of our cavalry iwaa dispatched for the purpose of preventing the enemy from crossing the Pak Chong river. Our cavalry found three Jnpanese squadrons on the left bank of the river, but they withdrew towards Anju on the arrival of our detachment, without fighting. The Japanese squadrons number about 190 each.”

FROM THE JAPANESE FRONT Organization Is Perfect, but Food Hard to Get in Korea. London, March 24. —A series of messages, dated between March 10 and March 17, sent by a correspondent of !The Daily Mail at Chinampho, Korea, describes the perfect organization and arrangements of the Japanese is Korea. Elaborate preparations have been made for landing troops and advancing them through the country, and pontoon bridges and stables are ini lit wherever they are found to be necessary. The greatest difficulty facing the Japanese is the commissariat, as owing to the poor food supplies of Korea It Is only possible at present to maintain 90,000 men.

The Japanese hold two enormously Strong positions at Ping Yang and on the Miokak-San Pange, between Hwang-Ju and Seoul. The latter, the correspondent says, is probably impregnable, and secures Seoul from land attacks from the northwest. In the event of defeat it is intended to hold the passes at Kazan, thus protecting the Ping Yang valley. The Japanese troops are suffering from dysentery and pneumonia, and many of the cavalry horses, which the correspondent eays are poor, have died, but the army la full of spirit. There probably are 20,000 Japanese at Ping Yang, which the correspondent points out might easily have been taken when the Russian scouts first arrived, there being then only 250 Japanese soldiers. The Russians intended to make Anju their base, but owing to the delay in the arrival of reinforcements they were afraid they would be cut off, and so retired. Mean'While the Japanese advanced to Ping Yang by forced marches, the troops being almost without equipment.

MAKAROFF REPORTS THE FIGHT He Claims to Have Disabled a Japanese Battleship. St. Petersburg, March 23. The emperor received the following telegram from Vieeroy Alexieff, giving (Vice Admiral MakarofTs report of the bombardment of Port Arthur on March 21-22: “At midnight of March 21 two ©f the enemy’s torpedo boats approached the outer roadstead, but were discovered by the searchlights of the batteries and fired upon by the forts and by the gunboats Bobr and Otvazuy. They were obliged to retire.

A second attack was made at 4 o’clock In the morning (March 22] by three torpedo boats, which also were repulsed. ‘At daybreak three detachments of the enemy’s fleet, consisting of six battleships, six armored cruiaers, six second and third-class cruisers and eight torpedo boats, approached from all sides. At 7 o’clock our squadron commenced to leave the inner harbor, the cruisers leading with the Askold, flying my flag, at their head, and the battleship* following. The enemy’s battleships approached Liaotishln and fired 100 shells from their 12-inch guns at Port Arthur and 108 shells at the environs of the town.

“Our shells, flTed at a range of eighty cables, were well placed. About 10 o’clock a Japanese battleship was struck by a shell and retired. We lost no men during thebombardment,which ceased at 11 o’clock, when the enemy’s ships reassembled, and after passing along the outer roadstead drew off without attacking our fleet.”

JAPAN’S PLANS FOR COREA First Thing Proposed Is a Move to Eliminate the Foreigners, London, March 23.—The Seoul correspondent of The Times says that while deprecating precipitancy in administrative reconstruction Japan recommends that Korea shall gradually eliminate foreign advisers of the government and appoint no more for the present. Many of the foreigners, who are mostly French, occupy advisory posts with emoluments aggregating SIOO,OOO, and half of these posts are absolute sinecures.

The Japanese are displaying great vigor in the construction of a light railway to Pang Yang and other stragetic projects, according to the correspondent, who says that as an evidence of the thoroughness of her plans Japan is preparing for the possibility of military reverses in Manchuria, but that whatever happens she intends to hold fast to Korea.

Japan has 3,000 engineers working on the railway and 100 miles of material obtained from disused lines in various pnrts of Japan are now awaiting shipment to Ping Yang. This scheme was designed to be completed by September next, and the road will afterwards be made permanent and extended to Wiju.

JAPANESE IN SIBERIA. Comparatively Few Remained After the Breaking Oat of War. St. Petersburg, March 23. —United States Ambassador McCormick has not been Instructed by the state department, at the request of M. Takahira, the Japanese minister at Washington, to ask the Russian government what facilities will be afforded to the 40,000 Japanese in Siberia to return to Japan.

According to information received here comparatively few Japanese are now hi Siberia. Most of them left there just prior to or after the breaking out of the war. The United States embassy, which is charged with safeguarding Japanese interests, has thus far responded to the appeals of a score of Japanese coming from Siberia through European Siberia. ' The last batch of twelve, from Irkutsk, was sent to Berlin Saturday. Not one of them has been molested, but it is considered safer that the Japanese be placed beyong the region of possible danger. No appeals lihve been received from the few Japanese residing in St. Petersburg and other cities of European Russia.

Gunboat Mandju Defies Chinese.

San Francisco. March 25fe»—Officers of the steamer Coptic, which has just arrived, saw the Russian gunboat Mandju lying in the river at Shanghai, and report that her commander is a Captain Carter, born in the United States, but a Russian by naturalization. When ordered to leave Chinese waters. Captain Carter emphatically refused and invited some one to make him move. At last accounts he was still at Shanghai with hie gunboat. A Japanese battleship and a cruiser flying the same flag passed out of the river while the Coptic was at Shanghai.

Haws from Vladivostok.

Vladivostok, March 24. While the situation here remains quiet it is not expected that Vladivostok will continue to be much longer free from tbe vigorous operations of the Japanese. In anticipation of the appearance of the enemy and of a possible siege, a ladies’ circle has been formed which sits six hours daily at tbe ministry of marine preparing bandages of linen for sick soldiers and sailors.

Fleet Breaks Through lee.

London, March 21.—The report comes from St Petersburg that tbe Vladivostok sqoadron dynamited its way through the ice in the harbor last Tuesday and put to sea. The report states further that it is conjectured at St Petersburg that the fleet has gone to Sagbalien Island. Naval experts be lieve Admiral Reitzenstein wij try to effect a juncture with the main squadron at Port Arthur.

Accounting for Capt. Reitzensteln.

Paris, March 23. —The Echo de Paris correspondent at St Petersburg Bays it is rumored in naval circles there that Captain Reitzenstein’s Vladivostok squadron has been ordered to overtake at a certain point in the Pacific the battleship and two cruisers bought from Chile by Japan and to capture them.