Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 138, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1904 — WAR IN THE ORIENT. [ARTICLE]

WAR IN THE ORIENT.

JAPS STILL POUNDING AWAY AT PORT ARTHUR. Little Yellow Men Are Straining Every Nerve to Capture the Ru «ian Strons£hold Mikado’s Army Making Progress—General News of the Conflict. The Japanese soldiers are straining every perve to get into Port Arthur before the Baltic fleet shall arrive there. ’ That fleet Is slowly moving eastward. It was reported last week that Admiral Rojestvensky’s division was coaling off SWakopsmund, In German Southwest Africa. The division which Went by way of the Suez Canal has passed out of the Red Sea, and before long will be in touch with the division which is circumnavigating Africa. Some of the vessels which left the Baltic last of ail have coaled at Tangier and are on their way to Port Said. The Japanese have made progress at Port Arthur. They have gained the eminence called Two Hundred and Three Meter hill and the fort which crowns it. That hill is dominated by others of which the Russians retain possession, but the, Japanese think it Is worth the price paid for it; which is aaid, though the figures probably are ■ exaggerated, to have been 5,000 in killed and wounded. The seizure of the hill is a breach In the inney line of defenses of Port Arthur. The desperate and unsuccessjfnl effort of General Stoessel to regain if shows. how ipuch importance h®. attaches possession. It is admitted at St. Petersburg that the loss is irreparable and the fall of the fortress* only a question, of time. But while the advanced position, held by the Japanese commands the town and htfrbpr of Port Arthur, the Russians can fall back to the forts on the LJaoti protnonotory south of the town, and if they hold on 1 to those forts as stubbornly as they have to the others it may, he weeks before Genera} Stoessel hoists the white flag. He may be relied on not to do so till the last moment- - . ,

General Nogi made the last day of November memorable in the history of tho siege of Port Arthur by capturing Two Hundred and Three Meter Hill, overlooking , the Etszhan and Antszshan forts. Once before, in the middle df September, he had succeeded in placing a company of his men well up toward the summit, but after a day and a night without food or water the company was driven off by the Russians. The all-day fighting of Nov. 30 followed several days of premilinary attacks. Repeated charges wore required before the fierce Russian resistance was overcome, and it was not till late in the evening that the entire summit was In-Japanese hands. It speaks well for the indomitable courage of the Russian soldiers, both officers and men, that In the face of all their losses and discouragements they were keen enough to attempt a sortie the following day to recover the-hill. So reduced are the Russian soldiers in number that they are not sufficient to man even the short line of forts on which the fighting has now centered. Port Arthur will have a place in history as one of the most famous of sieges. The Japanese assailants will be remembered for their cheerful Indifference to death in their terrible charges, but the Russian defenders will make an even stronger appeal to the imaginations of men in the future. As far as is known the situation on the line of the Shakkhe Biver is much what it was a week ago. There have been Russian reports of movements In which the Japanese got the worst, of It and Japanese reports in which the Russians came off second best. It Is intimated that General Kuroki is moving around the Russian left flank, but there Is no evidence of it Nearly all the correspondents, and military attaches have left the Russian army. This is an Indication that no great battle is looked for during the winter. But it is hard to believe that the two huge armies will remain where they are until spring. It is said that the Russians are suffering for lack of fuel and are thinking of a forward movement to get possession of the Yentai coal mines, of which the Japanese have the benefit. If so it will be the first battle on record for the possession of a coal mine. The question of water supply may become s serious one now that the streams are frozen up. The epidemics which come from the drinking of polluted water may break out The Japanese diet has met and Is preparing to vote the money needed to carry on the war next year. The terms which It was intimated during the week would be acceptable to Japan—the restoration of Manchuria to China and the renunciation by Russia of her lease of the tip of the Liaotung peninsula, Port Arthur to be dismantled—are not acceptable to Russia. The rumor that ahe la willing to make peace with Japan If that country will enter into a close alliance, the two to be joint masters of China and the Orient hardly deserves notice.