Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 118, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1904 — PROGRESS OF THE WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Wliat we know to a certainty about the situation at Port Arthur is’now, as has been the case ever since the siege began, just nothing at all. Wbat we are able to guess with a fair degree of probability is very little. When a general assault lS|belng made by the J apa nese we soon ki wwt h e l atro- fact by the thick crop of rumors that come to Cbefoo. Also the latest rumors usually suffice to show that earlier rumors were false. But what positions the Japanese are now holding, and •more especially whethey they have driven the Russians permanently out of any one of the chain of great inner forts of Port Arthur, cannot be told. Nevertheless It is worth while to cast a glance over the progress of the siege and niake the best guesses about It that we can. The first landing of Japanese on the Liaotung Peninsula was made May 5, immediately after the battle of the Yalu. May 27 was fought the battle of Kinebau, with the storming of Nanshan, and thereupon the effective investment of Port Arthur by land began. Daliiy was at once occupied by General Xogi and made his base.

About the last of June or the first of July, concurrently with the occupation of the three passes in the Manchurian mountains by Generals Kuroki, Oku and Nodzu, the first bombardment of Port Arthur was made. This was at long range, and It resulted in enabling the Japanese to occupy an advanced line, across the peninsula at a distance of some ten or twelve miles from the main defenses of the fortress. The Japanese seem then to have divided their armies into three sections. At any rate, three general lines of attack on the fortress can be marked out. Their left came along the east coast of the peninsula against Mount Tnkushan and Siao-hou-shan. Their center advanced on the village Suei-sze-ying, about five miles north of the harbor, close to Wolf Hill. Their right sought to work around to Tigeon Bay, on the west coast of the peninsula, directly west of the City of Port Arthur. Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 15 we can locate with a none too certain guess the Japeuese occupation of Takushan Mountain, of Wolf Hill And of a village and minor fort on Pigeon Bay. With this the besieging army was iu direct opposition to the line of exceadingly strong forts which make up the inner defenses. Rumor after rumor at that time told of the capture of Etse-shan and Antszshan, two of the strongest of these forts, and the sortie of the Russian fleet Aug. 10 gave grounds for the belief that these rumors were true and that the fall of the fortress was impending. Tlu-se rumors proved all wrong, and if ti Japanese actually succeeded in forcing the Russians out of Etse-shan they were unable to hold it themselves. A month of comparative quiet —a time of bombardments, but not of assaults—followed, Then, as it would seem, about two weeks ago—most of the stories say Sept. 19—a new series of assaults began. We were 'told that the Japanese had captured nine minor forts, part of them lying close in to Etse-shan and Antszshan and part south of Wolf Hill. Theso latter controlled the waterworks of Port Arthur and gave the Japanese a new point from which to make attacks either upon Antszhan to the west or upon the strong Keek wan forts to the east. We are still in'lgnorance whether these positions, if actually taken, were held, and also as to whether they are now being used as aids for further assaults, or whether assaults have now ceased for the present. We have little reason to think that any one of the main chain of forts is now in Japanese occupation. The fact that both sides are losing confidence is a striking evidence of the desperate fighting around the place. The Russians feel that they cannot much longer resist the desperate attack. The Japanese fear they cannot batter down the indomitable defense. There have been outpost skirmishes between the armies of Oyama and Kuropatkin, but no serious fighting. The Japs took Da Pass, about fortyfive miles southeast of Mukden. But Its defense wus not seriously attempted, and It is not a place of great importance. Oyama’s troops were still concentrated, at last reports,Just north of Llaoyang and at Yentai. This being so another big battle Is not soon Imminent, for two armies cannot fight when they are twenty-five miles apart. Liaoyang Is being fortified by the Japs on Its north side. When these works are completed the town will be a perfect stronghold, f*(Jr Kuropatkin already had fortified It on its southern and eastern sides. The plan of the Japanese is evidently to push the Russians back as far as practical, and then relying on their fortifications to hang on like death to the territory

they occupy, defying the Russians to push fchem back again. The railroad around Lake Balkil has finally been completed. Prince Khllkoff, director of railways, has done himself proud. Communications between European Russia and the far east have been better sustained than was thought possible nt the outbreak of the war by either military experts or railway men. But hereafter the railway must transport not only communications, clothing, re-enforcements and hospital supplies, but also food. The Manchurian territory south of Mukden*is fertile and generally cultivated. North of that town little food is produced. So long as the Russian army occupied southern Manchuria it could live on the country. Now it must get its provisions from central and western Siberia.

POSITION OF THE ARMIES.

RUSSIA’S UNDERGROUND QUARTERS AT HARBIN.