Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1904 — ONE WEEK OF THE WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ONE WEEK OF THE WAR

MARCH OF EVENTS IN THE FAR EAST DURING SEVEN DAYS. Russians, Disorganized by the Tain Battle, Seem to Have Stopped Running and Turned on the Japs, Who Have Met with Severe Repulses. Seven days have seen no little change in the relative prospects of the contestants in the far East. A week previous the Russians were on the run everywhere. Disorganized by the disastrous battle on the bank of the Yalu, General Kuropatkin’s forces were supposed to be lying in terror at Liaoyang, and considering an immediate further retreat. The Russian general staff made what was considered a most natural declaration, that the army would fall back not only to Mukden, but far beyond it, to Harbin, and the general comment was that retreat might even already be cut'off. , From numerous sources came reports of large bodies of Japanese troops as far north as Mukden.

It now transpires that the Russians never fled as far as Liaoyang; that they have not considered a further retreat; that, on the contrary, they have been able to push their foe back to within fifteen miles of Fengwangcheng and that there is no Japanese force near Mukden. It still appears to be the fact that the Japanese vastly outnumber the Russians; the latter may eventually be forced back to Mukden, where a decisive battle Is still to be expected; but, in the meantime, not only is Liaoyang not taken, but every mile of the way between it and the present Japanese position is likeJy to be contested. There is nothing in the news of the week to make improbable the ultimate success of the Japanese in their Manchurian campaign, but it is evident that that success will not be easily achieved. If the rainy season has indeed set in, the fact constitutes a Russian advantage; it nyiy postpone Japanese aggression some months. In the meantime, Cossacks may be able to worry their enemy considerably. Furthermore, the delay is held to be an opportunity for those Russian reenforcements which have been so long coming across Siberia. In the interim, however, the Japanese armies in

Manchuria will undoubtedly be tremendously augmented. Port Arthur still stands, and no serious effort has been made to capture or reduce it, although predictions were made in Tokio that the end of the week would see that city and harbor in possession of the Mikado’s forces. The first serious naval disaster of the war has overtaken the Japanese, though its effect is rather moral than actual. On the other hand, the Russians have again been compelled to sacrifice a magnificent vessel to their own stupidity. There is some reason to beli&Te that the Japanese have now between 40,000 and 50,000 men beleaguering Port Arthur, where there is a much smaller Russian garrison. If the Japanese really have concentrated so many men at that point and are bringing up siege guns, it must be their intention to push matters, even at the risk of a great loss of life. To let the siege or investment drag on until the Russian Baltic fleet reached the Pacific would be a hazardous matter. Operations at Port Arthur do not attract so much attention as those inland, far to the north, where Gen. Kuropatkin is facing the concentrating armies of the Japanese. Nothing has been heard of the army under Gen. Oku, which landed west of the mouth of the Yalu, and was supposed to be moving in the direction of Halcheng, about midway between Newchwang and Liaoyang, on the line of the railroad.

Gen. Kuroki's w’hereabouts is better known. Wednesday some of his troops bad reached a point about twentyeight miles north of Fengwangcheng. They were attacked, according to Russian reports, by several regiments of Cossacks and were driven back fifteen miles. This was at first described as a battle In which the Japanese suffered heavy loss, but It (loes not appear to have been much more than an affair of outposts, signifying little. This encounter throws a little light on the position of the Japanese, but not on their plans. The Russians have evacuated Newchwang, and presumably hold a line along the railroad extending from Halcheng nt the south to Mukden at the north. The Japanese are somewhere to the east of that line. According to Russian reports, 80,000 of them are still south of the Russian troops that are covering Liaoyang. It Is already a terrible war, and prospects of worse to come.

JAPANESE PROTECTED CRUISER YOSHINO.