WAR IN THE EAST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 101, 3 May 1904, Page 3

WAR IN THE EAST.

THE PETROPAVLOVSK DISASTER.

LONDON. May 1. Prince ALexicfFs special commission reports that a Japanese mine under the bow compartments and bunkers of the Petropavlovsk exploded a 12inch shell of pyrodilime powder. The cartridge \yas stored as a cylindrical boiler. A series of explosions occurred two minutes before the sinking. Prince Alexieff's report states that ten Japanese cruisers and six torpedocrs were off Vladivostock. on Friday morning, but quickly disappeared in the fog. The Kinshi Mnru affair has caused widespread regret In Japan, but no excitement* It Is stated in St. Petersburg that the Japanese are laying automatic mines several miles outside Port Arthur to prevent Russian ships Junctioning with the Port Arthur fleet.

JAPANESE VICTORY. RUSSIAN FLANK TURNED. KIU-LEINCHENG CAPTURED. LONDON, May 1. Fighting has been going on at the Yalu since Tuesday. The Japanese effected a. crossing on Thursday and turned the Russian left flank, cap- | luring on Sunday Kiu-licnchong, the key of the Russian position. A gunboat flotilla co-operated with the Japanese batteries on the south bank.

RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. A STORY THAT MAY OB MAY NOT BE TRUE. (Received May 2, 10.8 p.m.) LONDON, May, 2. Col. O'Neill {?), writing to th» Fortnightly Review, end claiming to record the views of responsible Russian statesmen, states that during the Boer war- Russia offered Marquis Ito that If allowed a free hand In Manchuria Korea would support Japanese expansion In tho Malay Archipelago and Oceana, especially against the Commonwealth, whoso exclusion of Japanese was intensely galling to Japan.

FIVE DAYS': FIGHTING. JAPANESE CARRY ALL BEFORE THEM.

HOLD A DOMINATING POSITION.

(Received May 2, 10.57 p.m.) LONDON, May 2. Reuter's Tokio correspondent wires that after five days' lighting, largely with artillery. General Kuroki forced the crossing of tho Yalu, and on Sunday, with a gallant infantry charge over, four miles of front, ex- ' pelled the Russians from the Kiuliencheng and the heights on the right bank ol the Aiho River.turning the Russians' left flank and sweeping away the new front interposed to check the outward movement. The Japanese present position is a dominating one, and likely to compel the abandonment of tho Russian defences at Autung and. elsewhere lower down the river. Kuroki began this movement on the 26th by ordering a detachment of guards to setae Kurno Island above Wiju, and a detriment of the second division to feeize Kinteito, an island below Wiju.

THE RUSSIAN VERSION, SAYS THAT JAPANESE WERE j DRIVEN OFF. i RUSSIAN RETREAT ADMITTED. (Received May 2, 10.43 p.m.) LONDON, May 2. General Kuropatkin telegraphs thai, the Japanese, probably on the 28th, •rossed the Yalu and occupied the villages of Khussan and Luzavan. The Russians on tho 29th expelled the Japanese fourth regiment of | guards supported by mountain guns from these heights, driving the enemy back to the Yalu, killing ten, and wounding thirty. The Russian and wounding thirty. The Russian loss was two killed and thirteen wounded. The Japanese pontoon bridge was dismantled. The sonio morning 1500 Japanese infantry with twelve guns crossed the river near Ambikhe, and after a fierce artillery fire forced two companies of Russian infantry and three sothnias of cavalry with two mountain guns to retire to the fortified positions at the rear. Five were wounded. The Russian guns were outranged. On the 30th the Japanese with 24 field guns and several siege guns mounted within cleverly masked earthworks' south of Yalu shelled the Russian entrenched position, firing two thousand shots. The Russians stubbornly defended. Ho admitted that three privates were killed and 19 wounded, besides seven officers disabled. Col. Pakhaloff was killed; On the 30th the Japanese re-crossed near Sindragei, and attacked the heights of Khussan. They turned th<! left flank, compelling the Russians to retreat to the village of Potlenintzy.