Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1904 — WARTWOMONTHSOLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WARTWOMONTHSOLD

PROGRESS OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND JAPAN. Strict Censorship Makes It a Difficult Matter for Correspondents to Get Accurate News to Outside World—Dispatches Received Are Contradictory.

The world knows about as little of what has been done or is going on in the wgr area of the far East as if the telegraph were not yet invented. The war correspondents seem to have been bottled up and do not know what the belligerents are doing, and they are not permitted to tell the little they may happen to find out. Therefore they amuse themselves and confuse the readers of newspapers with rumors and guesses. In jplace of news and fai ts, the newspaper readers of all the world are fed with idle gossip and the more or less absurd theories of self-advertised experts on the conduct of operations of which they are absolutely ignorant. Tuesday morning, we are told, at vast expense of cable tolls. Admiral Togo’s fleet, consisting of fifteen big ships and eight torpedo boats, advanced upon Port Arthur, which the admiral had captured on the previous Sunday, and bombarded it. Why Admiral Togo did this is not explained. Nor are we informed how it was that the Russians regained possession of the city. Yet they must have recaptured it, for we are notified that on Monday they evacuated Port Arthur, first having surrounded it with land and sea mines and kerosened all the buildings, coal and stores. At the same time the Russians, ns is stated by the correspondents, are rushing large quantities of supplies to Port Arthur. As the Japanese have captured the town it is certainly very polite of the Russians to supply tl\em sq bountifully with food. Meanwhile, the Russians, having evacuated Port Arthur as ter having recaptured it and driven out the Japs,, have had time, in mining the harbor, to recover fifteen Japanese torpedoes from which the Japanese, in their pardonable excitement, forgot to withdraw the safety plugs. This nevertheless, has not prevented the Japanese, as we learn from the- London Times’ correspondent at Tokio, from blockading the entrance to Port Arthur. The tidings from Vladivostok are no less interesting. The harbor is blocked with ice, and the Russian squadron, which left the other day for the purpose of effecting a junction with the Russian fleet blocked at Port Arthur, is frozen up there. This seems peculiar, in view of the fact that the Vladivostok fleet has sailed to intercept at a certain point in the Pacific the battleship and two cruisers bought by Japan from Chili, which reached Japan two weeks ago and participated in the bombardment of Fort Arthur on Tuesday morning. But we are getting used to these little things.

Two Months of War. The Russo-Japanese war has been in progress for two months. So far as can be gathered from the meager dispatches the operations of the war have been limited to the naval attacks on I'ort Arthur and Vladivostok. On land there has been no engagement more serious than picket skirmish. There have been no reconnoissances in force, no maneuvers of the opposing armies; there has been no unmasking on either side. In eight weeks there has been no war on land. In the several bombardments of Fort Arthur Russia has met with considerable loss, but the naval operations have had little influence in shaping the course of the campaign oir land. Undoubtedly Russia has been put at a disadvantage on the sea front of the theater of war by the crippling of her fleet, but this has not prevented the massing. of troapson strategic lines, and it is nfiw reported that the mobilization of the Manchurian army is complete. On the Japanese side there must be the same degree of completeness in preparations for advance. This does not mean that a general en-

gageinent will be fought until the Japanese commander feels that his army is strong ejwuih to force a battle. Then will come the real, test of strength. It is not known to what extent the Russian fleet has been crippled, but the Japanese admit that it is still strong enough to. give them great uneasiness. Japan, with nearly all of its available military force in Korea, must retain control of the sea to win, or in case of defeat to save its army from destruction, whereas Russia can conduct great land campaigns and permit its fleet to remain or. the defensive. As the main issue of the war turns on the occupation and control of territory. whatever the fleets may do, the decisive battle or battles will be fought on the land, not on the sea. The strict news censorship is painful to press associations and publishers, who have sent squads of high-salaried correspondents to the war, and very annoying to the public, yet it must be owned that the Japanese have shown rare good judgment in keeping their military move'ments concealed from the reporters nnd from their enemy. A censorship that cannot bo beaten by the ingenuity of a whole battalion of American newspaper men is a corruscatipg triumph of administrative efficiency and executive ability. Milan, Italy, not Lyons, France, is now the greatest silk market

CLEVER RUSE OF THE JAPS. Ingenious little islanders rig up dum my lights and draw the fire of Russian forts.