RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 186, 11 August 1904, Page 3

RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

FIOHTING AT PORT ARTHUR. GREAT DAMAGE TO THE TOWN. LONDON, August 9< Che-foo advices received In Rome state that the Japanese on the 29th ultimo and the sth and 7th inst., captured further positions near Port Arthur, shelling the town, docks and warships, and doing immense damage.

THE MALACCA INCIDENT.

LONDON, August 9. The Bight Hon. A. J. Balfour I (Prime Minister) in reply to Mr i Bowles (member for King's Lynn) regarding, tite Malacca, said the object of Britain's very strong re- i monstrance with Ruseia was to pre-- , vent- a new incident, and the first i which had occurred since the Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of London, from developing into one calculated to cause a great deal of strata between the two countries, a condition of strain which might easily be developed further. "The actual arrangement," continued the Prime Minis- j ter,' "Is in tltte nature of a com- , promise, but we obtained the whole , ol our contentions." Referring to , the Knight Commander decision, Mr Balfour declared that Great Britain adhered to the contention that under the circumstances alleged, whether true or not, there was no justification for sinking a neutral ship. COAL FOB RUSSIA AND JAPAN. THE OCCUPATION OF WBI-HAI-WEI. LONDON, August 9, The Bight Hon, Gerald Balfour (President of *he Board 'of Trade), replying to a auestion in **>» Hous * said 1,381,000 tons oi British steam coal had been exported to Russia and 87,000 to Japan since December. " Negotiations are proceeding nctween' -the Marquiß of Lansdowne (Secretary of State for Foreign. Affairs) *nd China wit* the object of modifying the terms of the Wen-hai-wei agreement. *>y ""* ich **&*** is *boup» > to -*WfV*- whenever RusPoi* Arthur VtHECZAB/S appeal. • vxeep we flag flying." (Received August 10, 9 p.m.) LONDON, August 10. The Cfcar haa appealed to Port Ar thurto keep the flag flying. General Stoessel reports that the Japanese on the 28th and 27th numW«a» many siege guns. fiiTOdivisioins.on the 80th ult. attacked Wotfa H*U- Tfie Russians to view, were-enormous, but owing to the 'superiority of the enemy's fore es end itoei jreataess of the position, they retired to the next positions. The retirement was carried out in an orderly,fashion, the artillery protecting the movement. ; r The natives : in the MoUen district are bitter against the Russians for entering a temple and using the .idols as targets for, revolver prac- • tice. ' (i The French Consular Agent mci-Niu-chwang ha? been settled. ~ General Oxaraagone will direct operations against Liaoyang. * Details of the Chobodal fight show that .the Japanese seized an overbangink cliff, and caught three regi--ments ascending a defile. They killed and. wounded a thousand in a .minute. /REINFORCEMENTS. (Received August 11,1.13 a.m.) LONDON, August 10. • Troepe from Mukden and Tiea-ling sure' jerfnforelhg Liao-yang. HOW KtTSSIA SUPPRESSES BAD ■.'.;; ', ' .NEW 3 ' ~..„ ' One of'the Times' Russian correspondents writes :-As an example of the strictness of the censorship on the, foreW Press, comment on the conduct >of the war or of criticism on the mistakes of, Russian commanders ■■ in the fie.d is allowed to dbss- the censor's hand anywhere '"within the Russian Empire without 'resort to the bfecking-pof. An espwiaTeye' to kept on * The Times. - Plain truths in regard to suqh matters -as the "riots" at KisMnefi, the humanity of Russian despotism in Finland, the, paternal treatment ol iWO-Ortbodox churches within the Russian pale, like, the Armenian Church to the Caucases, were never keenly, relished by Russian bureaucratic, f departments. They were, of course, " untrue," or " exaggerated, x Moreover, they were matters which We no concern to the outside world. War news being mainly bad sews, and comment on that news " mainly .critical, it is " blacked out " in ' The Times ' with increasing fr&•juency. Not'content .with using the brush and fagment, the Russian censor even at times resonte to wholesale excision.. He, does not stop at cutting out a couple of columns, but now and again '•' administratively " suppresses* page or two. A gentleman residing in St. Petersburg in- ' forms me that he received ' The Times ' of Saturday, June 18, minus the whole of pages 7 and 8, whtle of the three leading articles published ill • The Times ' of Friday ,the l"7th, and apart from other" blacked-out " portions, one and a-half on page 9 , was obliterated. Tho only effect pro..dueed is with Russians as with others, to arouse increased curiosity in . regard to the contents of " blackedoUt f .' articleSfSSßich they are shrewd enough to grasp must especially con- ' : cern their, own country. WAR ITEMS.

The present silence of the Japanese ' bodes ill for themselves. If they had' had any new successes they would have cried thein aloud from ' the housetops. Their silence tells another' talc—Novosti, St. Petersburg. In a restaurant at the Russian headquarters at Liao-yang, which is frequented by Russian officers, tl* war was being discussed. An officor present' at once proposed cheers for the brave Japanese, which were warmly given- by the Russian officers "' who without' doubt feel genuine ad- ' miration for their adversaries' courage. The Russian Minister'of the Interior has given the' Feterburgskiya Viedomosti a second warning on account of Its publishing news which Is considered by the Ministry as calculated to cailse.'baaeless amxiety to public opinion. The news now in question was to the effect that Moscow capitalists had to a considerable extent subscribed to the Japanese war loon. •It will 110 to the boneflt of tho neutral Powers' to' lot Japan accomplish her purposes'in the Vrescnt wa r. The open <dobr and equality,in trade and nnd commerce in Manchuria is the national policy of Japan, and we hove teen so jealously scrupulous of avoiding all misconception as to our ' motives- in the present was that we have pledged our future in this confer which we have oven dared to engage in war are precisely those in common With the Powers of Europe ' and. America. To talk of mediation in. therefore far too early yet.— Nic Nichi-Shimbun, Tokio.