WAR IN THE EAST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 80, 8 April 1904, Page 3

WAR IN THE EAST.

ACTA DIURNA,. REPORTS FROM THE FRONT. LONDON, April 0. The Japanese arc (unifying Fusan and lvoje Island, The war correspondents have left Kobe for the front. Many Japanese at Clii-naiu-pho and An-ju are s..tiering f.oai fiosibilten I'ect, Forty-live Tonghuk bandit insurgents were hanged at ivung-ctiou, Korea. Three hundred Japanese infantry at Yung ham-pho found Russian depots, and pillaged ami burnt them. French newspapers report a tight near Sachon, southwards of Wi-ju, between Japanese cavalry and Cossacks. The former suffered severely until they were reinforced, the Russians then retiring, ARMOURED WAGGONS FOR TRANSPORT. LONDON, April (j. Russia has ordered' in Belgium l!o0 carnages cased with steel for the transport of troops,. KINO EDWARD ON A JIISSION OF PEACE. LONDON, April (J. I'resistcnt reports, originating in Copenhagen, are in circulation to the eticct that King Edward is proparing to interpose at an opportune moment on behalf of peace In the Far East. CONVICTS SEIZE THE CHANCE TO EXPIATE CRIMES. LONDON, April 6. Two hundred convicts from the Caucasus have arrived at Kharbin, having volunteered to servo at the front in expiation of their crimes. A similar force is organising at a Russian convict settlement In tho North Pacific. ON TIIIO YA-LU. JAPANESE FORCE A PASSAGE. (Received April 7, 10.33 p.m.) LONDON, April 7. The Chronicle's Tokio correspondent states that Japanese troops swam tho Va-lu river near Kiu-lien-cheng., and following the rivrr northwards found the Russians occupying a strong defensive position with a large force at Feng-hwang-cheng. A DESCENT BY BRIGANDS, LONDON. April V. A party of mounted brigands surprised some Rubsli-.li scouts at l.iao-

wing, killing se\eru' of them. They also damaged the telegraph linos and the railway. REPORTED ABA X 1 'ON M KNT OF RUSSIAN AJiTILUCKY, LONDON, April 7. A Seoul telegram reports that the Japanese, by a rapid advance, forced the Russians to abandon twentyfour guns at Wi-ju. RUSSIAN EXAGGERATION. The military correspondent of the Times deals with the tendency on the part of the Russians to talk higher thau the possible limit of action. lie says : —"The estimate of Russian forces sent to us by St. : Petersburg has the customary disadvantage of Russian news—namely, that of being contrary to fact. Tne Russian army, we are told, ' which would operate' in the Far East aggregates 390,000 men, and 110,noO more can be sent every month. Doubtless the whole Russian army ' would operate' in the Far East if it could, but the whole point of the military situation is that it cannot. No one who reviews the situation with impartiality and knowledge will be disposed to under-esli-mate for a moment the patriotism and solidarity of the Russian N nriuy a-n-d the Russian nation. History affords too many proofs of the courage oi tlhi one and the tenacity of the other for any such error to be permissible. But if a Russian staff officer exists who is capable of supplying the wants of an army of half a million men by means of a single non-continuous line only capable of admitting- of the passage of four trains a day at an average speed of 70 to' 200 miles from Moscow, the shade of Moltke must hide his diminished head. And if this same officer proposes to in- : tcrpolatc 110,000 men in the midst lof his supply trains he is certainly a sanguine spirit." HUSSIA'S BALTIC FLEET. It is daily becoming more evident that .Japan has not by any means annihilated the Russian fleet In (lie Last, and so long as the Russians possess at l'ort Arthur an appreciable squadron the Japanese eannot look with indifference on the >,reparations thai are being made for the despatch of a reinforcing lied stacie 1° UiC - Tl "' e,Viltl ' sl static to the progress of the llect (says an exchange) will be t) ie , iir . Acuity of obtaining supplies of coal. In fact, such a compelent. wilhorilv as Sir 11. IV. Wilson believes thai this difficulty alone renders the Eastern fleet a forlorn hope. Russia has "<>t « Single muling station of her mvn on the 11,,1,. 1:1,71,0 > -il.-s bi-t u ri-n Kronstaili and l'ort ( "' "»• Which "ill ! l! '" li-'l Ih" l.atll.'ships Naand Alexander 11. have n coal radius of about .'!(hh> j n ii,. s . w hije the Sissoi can do something less, ihe worst vessel of the fleet, || M . Rynda, can only do about miles without tilling her bunkers again, so it is evident the fleet will have some difficulty in covering the different &/»ps ljetw ; ,e<en the coaling stations. Even supposing they can cover these gaps, the Powers concerned are likely to be very chary of supplying coal, for it is not so (very long since an intern.-tttfonal court lined England £3,000.000 for supplying the Confederate cruisers with coal, nnd for other similar offences. Rut assuming that the licet could obtain supplies of coal, these would not he sufficient to cany it right round. A neutral power may only supply sufficient to take a belligerent fleet' to the mvirest port of its own country, and it would be impossible. on conditions for the Raltic fleet to negotiate a voyage which is six times its own stieauiHig radius. The alternative course is to convoy colliers, from which the warships could till their hunkers on the voyage. This, however, raises two more place the slow puce of the colliers would he a hindrance 1o the fieri, and there would stifl be a gap of 3000 miles between, say, .Jibuti! and Sumatra, where the coaling would have to hi? done nt sea. for all the islands are British. Whether Ihe Russian Government would consider while grappling with such obstacles to place a reinforcing fleet in Eastern waters is very doubtful. If such a flr-et did venture to weather all the difficulties und dangers of the voyage, it would arrive with empty bunkers, foul hulls, and dirty tubes, and the chances arc that tho Japanese fleet could "steam rings round it."-