THE WAR.

Manawatu Herald, 22 December 1904, Page 3

THE WAR.

THE SIEGE OP PORT ARTHUR. A TWELVE DAYS’ ASSAULT. Shells on the night of the 9th repeatedly hit the hospitals in Port Arthur, killing seven of the parents. Many of the occupants of the hospitals, clad in white, fled into the . snowy street and presented a ghostly sight. Several died from exposure. General Stoessel has cabled to the Gzat a stirring story of the twelve days’ assaults, commencing on No- ■ voraber 29th. Ho claims to have . definitely repulsed the Japanese with the loss of twenty thousand. He attributes this result to the prayers of the mother Empress. Cabling on the 10th, General Etoessel admits that the Japanese, on the 6th, captured Vyssokaia Hill after three repulses. He states the warships are suffering from the eleven inch shells, Reuter’s Tokio correspondent reports that the Sevastopol was torpedoed ten times and is now aground, being completely disabled. Birileff, writing to the newspaper Novos Vremya, urges the cessation of the Polemich connection with the 3rd squadron. He describes the Baltic fleet as being enormously strong and equal to the Japanese. He declares that Admiral Rozhdestvensky has every chance of success since Admiral Togo’s vessels and personnel have evidently suffered severely. RUSSIAN WARSHIPS ABANDONED. GARRISON ON HALF RATIONS. The Japanese lost two torpedoera altogether in their operations against the battleship Sevastopol. The crew of one were saved. The Russians have abandoned the warships Peresviet, Poltava, Pobieda, -Pallada, Bayan, and Refcvizan. General S toessel was again wounded but not seriously. -> General Stoessel reports that twelve thousand of the garrison, including the sailors, are on half rations. Mizzenoff reports that the garrison expects the arrival of Admiral Rozhdestvensky’s Baltic Fleet within ten days,