THE WAR.

Manawatu Herald, 25 February 1904, Page 2

THE WAR.

ENGAGEMENT AT YALU RIVER.

RUSSIANS STATED TO HAVE LOST HEAVILY.

The New York Herald’s St. Petersburg correspondent says that in an outpost engagement at Yalu the Russians were repulsed, losing 2500. The report is unconfirmed.

The sensational rumours afloat suggesting the embroilment of neutral Powers, combined with reaction from the previous optimism, caused a severe panic on the Paris Bourse. Rentes fell 98.55. Russian securities fell less heavily as the Russian Government supported them. : During the fortnight securities on the French market depreciated forty million sterling.

The JEieff military staff declare that the armma in the CaacasusPand Turkestan can bd immediate!j’whbiUsed. This is regarded as a threat - against India. Bennett Burleigh states thai the Russians have commandeered & thousand carts at Mukden.

The Dominion Government intend to increase the militia to one hundred thousand, rendering it possible to mobilise sixty thousand quickly in the event of cpmplioations m the Far East. *

Russia has expelled all the Jews from Siberia on the ground that they were abettors of treason, has forbidden them the use of the railway, and directed the officials to refuse them shelter.. It is feared that miIQJ will die of exposure.

PORT ARTHUR. ABLE TO STAND A TWOYEAR’S SEIGE.

General Kuropatkin has resigned the position of Minister of War, and has been gazetted Commander-In-Chief in Manchuria.

Port Arthur is accumulating provisions, and professes ability to stand a two years’sipge. A Russian battleship, several cruisers, and a dozen destroyers are still at'Jibutil. Tokio is much concerned lest they be allowed to coal. Extraordinary activity is evidenced at Cherbourg (Prance) arsenal. Torpedoes and submarines are daily exercising, and the mines at the entrance to the harbour arc being .overhauled. ‘ The Peninsular steamer Mongolia; outward bound for Australia, otf Saturday encountered a Russian battleship and four destroyers in the Red Sefy 460 miles north of Aden. The mail steamer was fruitlessly chased in the belief that she was a Japanese vessel- When signalled* the Mongolia stopped and satisfied her pursuers that a mistake had been made. The officer in command of the squadron begged to be excused. Aden reports a collier lying at Bed Sea Island employing Russian codes. Governor Taotai, of Shanghai, at Japan’s instance, ordered the gunboat Mandjur to leave within. 24 hours. The commander of the Mandjur refused, alleging that M. Lessar, the Russian Minister at Pekin, had obtained China’s permission to remain as a non-oopilt batant.

GIFTS TO RUSSIAN SOLDIERS. King Edward presented the AMI perOr of Korea, on the his birthday, with a monster silver cup. The newspaper Le Temps publishes a strong article advocating patience on the part of England ana France and the necessity for controlling their sympathies with their allies, reducing to a minimum any difference in policy between ■ the two countries.

The soldiers leaving Russia were presented with tea, sugar, tobacco and odd bits of clothing. Bezobrazoff applied for audience in order to offer explanations, bat t,he Czar refused. Japan has established etbergrams between the army and navy.

HOSTILITY TOWARDS ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

The Daily Telegraph reports that embezzlements and corruption with regard to victualling have been revealed at Port Arthur. Sand was supplied instead of sugar while alleged large military stores were nonexistent.

Count PavalofPa report of the fight at Chemulpho represents that ihe Japanese cruiser Takaohioho was sunk and the Asama silenced.

A vigorous pro-Russian campaign, hostile to Britain, is progressing in Europe. Crowds at Prague (the capital of Bohemia, a province in Austria) made a demonstration against the British and American lonsulates. The police interfered. ANOTHER ATTACK OK PORT ARTHUR. Several sources report :i?a fresh attack on Port Arthur. The authorities at Vladivoatook have detained the British steamer Rosalie. She will presumably act aa a collier to the cruisers which are believed to have returned there. THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

A. German military paper estimates the rate of transportation across the Siberian railway at nine mi’e* ah hour. Assuming that Russia had 183,000 troops in the Far East on February 10th it would be March 3rd before she had 168,000; 19th, 183,000-; April 4th, 208,000; and this only under the most favourable conditions. A BRITISH STEAMER FIRED ON. The British steamer Chingpringon, on arriving at Wei-hai-Wei, complained of the Russians, near Dalny, hitting her in seven places on the water-line.

Okura, a millionaire, at Tobio, has offered to sell a unique ChineseJapanese art collection for £200,000 in aid of'the war fund.

Six hundred Russian cavalrymen are at Sunchin, south-east of Anju. The Russians contributed a million and a quarter sterling in aid of the navy and a million and a half in aid of the Bed Cross.