WAR IN THE EAST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 94, 25 April 1904, Page 3

WAR IN THE EAST.

CABLE NEWS. United Press Association.—By Telegraph.— Copyright,

ALEXIEFF'S RESIGNATION" NOT ACCEPTED. ST. PETERSBURG, April 22. Tiince Alexielf's resignation has not yet been accepted. RUSSIA PRESSING TURKEY FOR MONEY. LONDON, April 22. M. ZinoviefT, Russian Ambassador to Constantinople, is pressing for payment of £930,000 sterling indemnities to Russian subjects in the war of 1878. This action is interpreted to mean that Russia will shortly ask permission for the Black Sea fleet to pass through the Dardanelles.

THE DISASTER TO THE PETROPAVLOVSK. REPORT FROM PRINCE ALEXIEFF, ANOTHER MINE EXPLOSION. OFFICER AND TWENTY MARINES KILLED. (Received April 24, 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, April 23. AdmiralAlexieff reports that Admiral Makaroll on the liig-ht of the 12th until four next morning watchod from the cruiser Diana the outer roadstead. Lights were seen in the distance and the destroyer Strashni mistook four Japanese destroyers for Russians. They were recognised at dawn. The Strashni fought at close quarters, the commander am] most of the crew Werag killed. The leport describes the llayan's engagement us an encounter with six cruisers, and adds that the Ha.yan on returning was covered with fragments of shells. Dealing with Admiral Makaroff's sortie he states that upon sighting nine battleships Makaroll returned and met the remainder of his squadron in the roadstead and reformed. The Petropavlovsk was heaxSng eastward towards the enemy when an explosion occurred on her right side, and another more v lo J e nt, under her bridge causing a high column of grc-en smoke Hie loremost funnel, bridge and. turret were thrown up. The vessel heeled over, the poop rose and the screw was working in the air. The vessel was in flames as she sank bow downwards. Seven officers and seventythree men were saved. He attributes the damage to the PoWeda to a mine which exploded on her starboard side causing her to list as she re-entered the harbour. He adds Lliut the crows retain liig'h spirits and are doing their duty.

Alexieff in a further report regrets that while some steam launches were placing mines yesterday a lieutenant and twenty marines were killed by a mine exploding under the stern of one of the launches.

THE JAPANESE BUSY. A BRUSH WITH THE RUSSIANS. RUSSIA BUYING STEAMERS. (Received April 24, 9.18 a.m.) LONDON, April 23. The Japanese are concentrating a division north of Wi-ju. They have nemoved the Korean population. The Japanese have collected sections of pontoon bridges opposite tae Island of Mabikhi and are preparing boats south of the river Pomakua. Two officers and thirty-two Russians in boats on the Pomakua exchanged shots with the enemy. Three Russians were killed, and both officers and lifteen men were wounded, twelve severely. Russia has purchased nine German liners for conversion into transports to replace some vessels in the Baltic. It. stated that they were purchased prior to the war.

CHINESE NEUTRALITY. (Received April 2fi, 12.21 a.m.) LONDON, April 24. The Viceroys at Krin and Mukden Wtterly resent Russia's highhandedness in trying to induce the Chinese to abandon neutrality, RUSSIA'S TASK.

Writing in the London Express, on February 27, l)r. T. Miller Mncgnire stated : —For a great military organisation. however brilliantly handled, to crush an insular Power which has secured command of the sea is impossible. It is not feasible, therefore, that Japan should be reduced to extremity by Russia. She can go on with her trade, annex islands, (worn over all the > coasts of Eastern Asia, and blockade or harass towns like Port Arthur and Vladivostok, and perhaps -isolate them, and at the same time maintain field armies. I believe that the Japajnese can isolate Port Arthur, or evjen ignore it. As for the Russians forcing their way into Korea, now that the Japanese are on the Yalu, General Ivuropatkin's men will be far better men than Marshal Soult's if they can do anything of the sort. The Russians have no chance, even if there be neither raids nor guerilla warfare in, Manchuria, of regaining Korea, and this is as serious a nra.tter for their future strategic position as the British occupation of Portugal and Spain was for Napoleon. If the Japanese stand on the defensive, Russia, unless content to lose prestige to a yellow race, will make desperate efforts year after year to recover Korea. Will Russia be able to drive the Japanese out of Korea ? Certainly not, unless the Japanese aro false to themselves and get tired or forget strategy. No matter what the numbers of the hostile infantry, or how many Cossacks are hovering about, Korea should be invincible. Peninsulas are fatal to Russia ; she cannot, without breaking her elbows, stretch out her arms so far from her centre as the apex of the peninusla. flris is the keynote of Japan's strategy. 1 postpone until 1 make this point clear any consideration of the oll'cns'ive policy of Japan from the bases of the Yalu and her inviolate sen. I see no necessity for the .J«u|>tanese passing the alu at all. Rut the Japanese are not likely to be content with a passive defensive. This would give the Russians lime to reorganise their resources, and we may b-e well us-* snred of their dodged olystinacy. Let not my readers attach much credence to stories of Cossack adventure ; these troopers, whether from the Ron or the Caucasus, are of little avail against any infantry. Their Hetma<n and all his chivalry in 1812 never broke a French battalion. They are admirable for raids and partisan work ; but oven in Turkey they did little ; and, when unsupported by infantry, KirilofT)? cavalry to the west of Plevna could not prevent Chefket Pasha sending in convoys of provisions to Osinan.

THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY Russia is making the experiment which Great Britain had forced lipon her four years ago of carrying on a war 6000 miles away ; hut how different I hi' comiilions ! We had the hroad Atlantic at our service, ami (says the Daily Telegraph) no obstacle to the forwarding of unlimited supplies of men and material, Russia has over 4000 miles of a single line of railway, which pusses through a country ot the severest climate in the world lor Ms latitude, «|:vd is exposed to serious interruption by storm etui Hood. With regard to these dangers, and to the capacity of the Siberian Railway to meet the demands of ft campaign conducted on a large scale, we have the testimony of civil engineers who have gone over it. It has been said that if all tho bridges on this, line were piloted end on end th6y tyould be thirty miles long. They are all of the same [ type, built of iron, tutd carrying a

single line, throu-gh girder lattice work, over spans varying in length from 100 yards downwards, the piers being of stone. Over small streams Umber is ofton used, and Colonel Beresford remarks that " those who know the clever work of the Russian carpenter can imagine that tliey are marvels of ingenious construction." Mr Barry reports that tiie Tohol Bridge is 1540 ft long, the lshim B'lOfl, ami the bWdge over the Irtish 22~>4ft. The weak portion of the work is the embankment and earthworks. Speaking of the TransBaikal section of 'the route, but which is —Now of Supreme Importance,— including as it does the Manchurian portion, 111' liarry says : "The railway follows a contour line as nearly as possible, but it wilnds in and out along hillsides, with curves of lOOiift radius, and there are many wiles of ono-i'ii-sixty guadie;nts, ; in the ascent to Cliitna -and the descent oil the other side. The earthwork is exceptionally heavy. Where the railway runs with the river on one .skie and the moi(nta;ms on tile other, tlie formation is benched 1 out of the sides of the latUi'i, and in some places,the slope of the cutting runs up to u groat height. For tho sake of economy and rapidity of construction the tonivul'i'on width has been cut down too much, and the angle of the slope of ,tho cutting is too stc-ep, in places looking' dangerous. On the river side of the rail'way the slope from formation (top) down to the river-bed is steeper than it ought to be, although in most cases it has been carefully pitched with stone. Engineers will realise the significance of these remarks. 'J'lit l difficulty of the route arises from the liability of the rivers to flood. When

—The ice Begins to Melttile rivers in that part of the country south of Hiu'lci'ii, where the Russian concentration is taking place, will I* 1 in Hood, am! Jew .sHii.suhs 1 ass in which hundreds of miles of low-lying areas are not underwater, such conditions trying the earth* works severely. Colonel Beresford mentions that in 18'J7 tho line had been laid from Stretinsk to Mitrophunov, when "a fearful flood carried away tho whole line 200 miles in length, and did dumage to the amount of £000,000." The work had to b'e recommenced, and took a long time to complete. Lenving out of account wilful interference by the enemy, there 'are gnave and inevitable risks. On the Question how far the Siberian railway is likely to 'be equal to the demands of war, Mr Llnrry remarks :— 1 T am inclined to think that the averagv dis'Oa'uce along the railway which supplies would have to travel would bie about 2500 miles—that is, from the neighbourhood of Omsk. Owing to the J'tic ts tflvat the railway is a S'iingUi line, that the stations are far apart and that, the

—Gradients and Curves are Severe—und that the permanent way is too light lor very heavy engines', it would proli'ably not be possible to get more than, say, eight trains of about MOO tons through each way in twenty-lour hours, ami then only under the most favourable circumstances, und on the rash assumption that no blocks or breakdowns occur. 1 This is an engineer's view based on personal observation, and on the assumption that "Manchuria for years to come, will | )e hostile' and that very little indeed in the way of supplies can IK.l K . procured in taster/a Siberia."