Port Arthur.

Manawatu Herald, 8 October 1904, Page 2

Port Arthur.

Twice, in the name of the Mikado, the military leaders of Japan demanded the surrender of Port Arthur, and, twice General Stoessel has repelled without hesitation the Imperial summons. No third opportunity will be given him, and Port Arthur must finally fall by assault at arms. The imagination is caught by this faithful soldier’s stern challenge to his terrible enemy to do their worst. He will defend the port entrusted to him to the last gasp, and isolated, outnumbered, decimated by gun fire and disease, hopeless as he is, the brave servant of an inexorable Czar will fight on to the end. What judgment history will form of this decision must depend upon the sequel, and it is just possible that General Stoessel may vet be vindicated a final effort of magnificent and worldsilencing heroism, which will make the end worthy of the defence, and cost Japan very dear. But it is more likely that the commandant has allowed the instincts of a soldier to overcome the wisdom of a diplomatist, and will prove to hay® acted like a gallant officer, but ? a bad politician. In an/ case the .die is cast. One of the most ipomorable sieves of history has entered upon itg°final phase. The fall Port - Arthur will now be forced in the bloodiest assaults sin6e tlm fall of Plevna. But even Plevna is not a parallel with this great citadel of the East. Plevna was an improvised position, seized in a moment of inspiration, and turned by tremendous efforts of spadework upon thp part of Osman’s army into a stronghold of no mean order. But Port Arthur is more thnn a place of arms. A leading London newspaper recently described it as a first-class fortress, surrounded by permanent works of the most elaborate and massive* character, constructed at enormous cost, with all the resources of military engineering, and strengthened without ceasing by years of labour, and remarked that to carry such a citadel by assault will be one of the epic feats of war, recalling the fiercest struggles of the Peninsular campaign, like the storming of Badftjoz, and unparallelled since in any modern war. The Japanese have been determined to recapture Port Arthur at any cost,- even if they must die by hecatombs in the act, * They have meant to gqt in, even 11/ in the last resort, they had to tunnel their way under the fortifications. Until they have torn down the Russian flag upon the topmost heights overlooking the Yellow Sea like a watch-tower, and planted the banner of the Rising Sun where it- waved before, they will not feel that they have consummated the making of a nation. The question noff-is that of relative positions. Nothing, it is admitted even in St, Petersburg, can stop the besiegers permanently. Gan we think that they are likely to be stopped for long ? : . Day by clay the ring of fire is closing, the bombardment concentrating upon a narrower area, the hospitals becoming more crowded - with wounded and diseased, the misery of the inhabitants becoming more intense. The Russian squadron is driven by the guns of the enemy out to sea, only,to be hustled hack again by Togo’s sleepless fleet. There remains, then, no human doubt of the issue. Port Arthur must fall. It is from this point of view, therefore, that j General u toessel must be judged. Whether he acts upon his own initiative or under instructions from Bt; Petersburg, he has signed th®. deathwarrant, in all probability, of thousands upon thousands, of men. But to what purpose? A useless butchery is decreed. It; wUI not serve the purposes that justify and demand a heroic defence and throw a sunset glory round a fallen cause. If orders to yield an untenable nositiOn, and to march put: with honour, had been telegraphed from St. Petersburg, the act would have been one of the soundest 'policy. The overthrow of the Muscovite Golussus by sheer force of arms will impress the imagination of the world as nothing else could with the power of the conquerors and the weakness of the vanquished. The news>.of the srreat fight will run through every bazaar in Asia. Even in the-West, where the mass of men require startling symbols to awaken them to the full meaning of epoch-making events, the taking of Port Arthur by assault will exalt the fame of Japan, and emphasise by comparison the discomfiture of her adversary. The question is whether the end’ has to come as a climax, or an anti-climax. If the fortress had yielded to fate, the exit of the garrison would have been dignified and untouched by disgrace. The Japanese entry would have been almost commonplace by comparison with what is likely to be now. rapture by storm will be, in short, the climax’ Japan may lose heavily in the assault —perhaps ten _ thousand men, perhaps twenty thousand but the achievement of storming the key of the Ear East at the bayonet’s point will thrill the whole nation with the inspiration that makes men invincible.— Truth,