RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 69, 25 March 1904, Page 3

RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

CABLE NEWS.

United Press Association.—By Telegraph.—Copyright.

THE, TRIBULATION'S OF PORT ARTHUR. MONDAY'S OPERATIONS. LONDON, March 23. Admiral Makharofl reports that the fire from the forts and the gunboat Bobrotvyng twice repulsed the torpedo-boats on Monday night. When the Japanese fleet appeared the cruisers (with Admiral Makharofl on board the Askold) and the battleships following left the inner harbour. The Japanese fired 100 shells from their 12in guns at Port Arthur, and 108 at the environs of the town. The Russian shells, fired at a range of forty cables (9600 yards), it -is reported, ( were very well placed. One Japanese battleship was struck and compelled to retire. The Russian fleet sustained no losses. The Japanese, when retiring, pas--Bed along the outer roadstead, but were not attacked by the Russians. The Russians have recovered some fifteen Japanesc torpedoes at Port Arthur. The Japanese forgot 'towithdraw the safety pegs.

.PUNISHING CHINESE BANDITS. LONDON, MaUch 23. General Zilinsky report's that 'Cossack forces met" a' torco of Chu'Nchuses at Oirdini, killing; one hun•dred of their number. JAPANESE AFFRAY WITH KOREAN REBELS. LONDON. March 23. A detachment of Japanese from Gcnsan attacked thrcia hundred Korean rebels at Humheung, about sixty miles northwards, and killed two, wounded twen.-ty, and captured thirty-six of th e ringleaders. It is declared the Russians Instigated the revolt.

, THE BASTILE OF SEOUL. GHOULISH MPJNIGIIT WORK. LONDON, March 33. The Supreme Court at Seoul Is clearing the gaol of prisoners who : have been awaiting trial for years. Thirteen have been strangled who were Implicated in the murder of the Empress of Korea in 1895, thirteen embezzlers and highwaymen wece hanged, and six decapitated—all In one night. JAPANESE JOURNALIST IMPEACHED. (Received March 24, p tn ) IA)NPON, March 34. ■- M. Akeyama, a member m the Japanese House oi Representatives, and editor of a Radical paper, has been impeached a£ Tofcio as a Russian spy. The newspaper has been supA TJEW TREATY PORT. LONDON, March 24. A Xonean edict declares Yong-ham-phQ an open port. V- . / THE JAPANESE ADVANCE. f . A BIG PLAN. '{Received March 24, 10.32 p.m.) LONDON, March 24. The Daily Express' Nagasaki correspondent says the details of the main Japanese advance have teen completed. Great forced marches will be made on Harbin, starting (com the mouth of the Tung River, below Possiet Bay. Heavy columns *re concentrated north of Ping-yang for an offensive movement against the Russian line of the Ya-lu River. The foremost Japanese force occupies a front from A-n-ju to Michkioneai. i The Daily Mail states that the dif- \ ficulty of procuring supplies renders it improbable that more than ninety ttouaand troops will land in Korea. The Russians are building a pontoon it Wi-ju.

A RUMOURED SEA CHASE, LONDON, March 24. It is rumoured that the Japanese Vladivostok squadron has been ordarcd to meet in the Pacific to intercept the Chilian cruisers purchased by Russia. JAPAN'S POLITICAL AIMS. (Received March 25, 1.22 a.m.) LONDON, March 24. Count Taro Katsura, Primo Minister, inlormed the Japanese Diet that the Japanese policy was the establishment of permanent peace in the Far East, and the consolidation of Japan s position by promoting friendly relations with the Powers by respecting their rights.

AWFUL JOURNEY FOK U I*B SI AN TKOOI'S. FEARFUL CONDITIONS AT LAKE BAIKAL. LONDON, Feb. 29. The Standard correspondent, writing from Moscow under date Feb. 25, before the opening of the Lake Baikal railway, says " I hear that the , congestion at Lake Baikal has already reached frightful proportions, and the price of provisions ail along the Siberian line is almost prohibitory. The colti at Lake Baikal is exceptionally severe, and is accompanied by snowstorms. The thermometer registers 51 degrees of frost Fahrenheit, and thero is generally a strong wind blowing from the north down the 600 mile length of the lake. The position of the miserable troops, and still more wretched transport carters, who must face this weather for at least. hours in order to get across the lake, is something more than even liussian native hardiness can endure. The journey } Jlf'li'kutsk, 4000 miles from Moscow, ■j lu closed railway freight cars of the American pattern, but, not so large, is a bad preparation for such a crossing. The cars—or, at any rate, a certain proportion of them—have their sides overlaid with felt, and all ore provided w ith a small iron stove, but the cold of the Siberian winter strikes through everything. The protected sides may somewhat improve matters, hut the roof and floor we left as in ordinary freight, cars Into such a car 30 nien are crowded, and must live there for intermini able weeks. After crossing the lake on foot there comes again the same terrible experience of cattle trucks, «nd only time can tell how many men can reach Harbin alive, to say nothing of fitneaa fog the field."

PANIC-STRICKEN VLADIVOSTOK • "(Per Mail Steamer at Auckland.) The Express prints a despatch from Shanghai in which a correspondent says he has just arrived there from Kobe, where it is impossible to break through the most rigid censorship he ever experienced. The correspondent adds that lie had an interview at Kobe with W. J. Lippe, an American furrier, who was forced to quit Vladivostok on Feb.. 10. Lippe described the city as then being in complete panic. No news had been received since the war begun. The telegraph line was wholly devoted to the 1 ran.sniission ol olticial messages to and from St.. Petersburg. Private mess«Kes wore refused. People were lermr-Ktriclaii, ami although they were In-lit ail escaping, there were pitiful .scenes at the railway .station, when the authorities allowed but 1 Hi persons to leave daily by empty troop trains going west. The people fought and scrambled to reach the ticket oliice. ilany who were unsuccessful knelt and pra.ved aloud, beating their breasts and offering any sum for a ticket. After the third day tradio was stopped and many started to walk inland. The (Jovernnient oliices, hank, and hospital bud been removed to Nikolisk. All shops were closed. Prices -have risen enormously. A garrison numbering 72UU troops is victualled for four months. The cruiser squadron left on Feb. <J to attempt to dash round Northern Japan and join the Port Arthur fleet, but the Japanese were patrolling the seas between Shanghai ien and Tseugaru, and the cruisers were forced to return. They are now practically bottled up. When Lippe left there was still the widest disorder. Constant false alarms of bombardment added to the terror of the people. Thurty-two searchlights were nightly Sashed seawards. The military was constantly on the alert. The artilleryman in the forts slept alongside the guns. One hundred and seventy Japanese, disguised as coolies, were caught on Feb. 11, while attempting to blow up a bridge and railway.

RUSSIA* SUBMARINES. Apropos of Russia's order for the immediate construction of submarines to be presumably shipped overland, this paragraph from the paper Celestial Empire of Shanghai is of interestSo satisfactory have been the tests with the new Russian submarine of the Rubnoff type that six new boats of the same kind are to be built in the Baltic yards during the current financial year. The boat made a teat journey from Cronstadt to Bjorkoe in 36 hours, and for 26 consecutive hours of the time she was submerged. The journey was; made at an average speed of from eight to nine knots. Although the boat was only submerged to a little depth, a violent gale that was blowing caused no inconvenience. The apparatus for renewing the aj? which ia on the principle of chen llcal ' reac _ toon. ls spoken of in ;. he hiffhl;st terms. °

DEARTH op NEWS.

With referr. ncc j-} u , dearth oi' war news_ Grey River Argus eays : "-The hitherto unknown severity 0 ( censorship, esi>eciall,y on part of the Japanese, keeps us \if not entirely in the dark) in so tuystilied state of appreciation that we don't know exactly where we are. From Russian sources we learn just what they want, us to k'now ; and the Russians, of lii,!j,a ami low degree alike, are such scientific and systematic liars Uiat. no one believes any of their statements even 'if sworn to on a stack of Bibles—that is if there is more virtue in a stack than in one volume of the sacred text. But downright, ■unmitigated lying seems to be the chief stock-in-trade of the Russians from top to bottom. There could be no higher tribute paid to the eternal beauty of trtitli than the spontaneous indignation with which the Christian world has regarded Russia's continuous system of perlkly in the Far East. We might except Germany, which has a traditional fear of the Slav, from time immemorial, and will always be ready to make a divarication in the national policy, east, west, or in any other direction, in favour of Rus. sia."