RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 210, 9 September 1904, Page 3

RUSSIA AND JAPAN.

RESUME OF PAST FEW DAYS' EVENTS, LONDON, September 7. Continuous marching and fighting have greatly fatigued. General Kuroki's vanguard. General Kuropatkin's strength on the 10th was twelve full divisions.- , The Marquis Oyama, after reviewing the fighting on the * tn > mea ~ I tions that the Russians stjll hold the Yen4.ai collieries, and that a portionof the Russians are still at Xing-shmisa, southwards of Yen-tai. General Kuroki's right is closely n touch with the enemy, and the Japanese left and centre armies have halted on the left bank of the Tai- *»• . . .

Marquis Oyama intended to send a portion of them to occupy the neigjits north of Niu-chwang, and advance along the railway. He adds that the Japanese are in excellent ■pirits. It took General Kuroki iour days, alter fierce fighting, to dislodge the Russians from the heights west of Hein-yeng-tai. Obstinate resistance there kept the line of retreat open to Mukden.

DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSPORT. PREPARATIONS TO CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE. LONDON, September 7. Torrential rainß have converted the roads into morasses, and the rivers are flooded. The Russian transports move with despairing slowness. Many' of the wounded have been abandoned. The Red Cross stations along the line supply the famished troops with food and hot tea. The St. Petersburg reports state that three army corps, totalling 192000, will reinforce General KuropatInn at the end of October. The Russians claim that 500 .guns Will be added in September t n the 600 General Kuropatkin now has at the front. The Japanese, with many heavy guns, are advancing along the roads parallel with the railway, watching for an opportunity to outflank the enemy t

NEWSPAPER OPINIONS. RUSSIAN PRESS~BLAMES THE BUREAUCRACY. LONDON, September 7. The Times Jays :-' , Whetiier the force at Yieog-sHu-su, which was so tovaluabie to .securing the Kussia n escape was t» rearguard;, we are left to conjecture, hut whether or U tie Bus* w are at Ycn-tai or Southward, 5t is an undoubted fact Sat the Japa «se were n **«}£ J£nd Yen-t*i igaioat columns of the wasttfuct^Myaban- - Curiously, Gen*Tk£op<4» W-to ol advancing north. and%p£is of what really is Ms right flank as the left. %«s Russian paper. Ms Novoe Wrevma, has published a sensation**ri« that the Bureau- ££?!> responsible for the present situation in the Far East. "XTalan newspapers indicate tbarwbiie ite »*»« "^lj r% ices it should demand efficient orvigorous initiat.ve.

MESSAGE FROM THE MIKADO. > • THE END OF THE WAR FAR DISTANT."

(Received September 8, 10.56 p.m.) jttecw L oNDON, September 8. The' Mikado has congratulated the lorces on their brilliant victory ra {£ of tremendous difficulties urging; them to practice care and pa&ETm to. end of the war was far distant.

BOTH SIDES EXHAUSTED. TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF THE WOUNDED, 1 LONDON, September 8. There i> no Russian olhcial information of Renter's Mukden message announcing that, the mam army was evacuating the town and pu*'»B north • but advices received at bt. Petersburg assert.that General Ku■ropatkin. with the bulk of his troops tea arrived at Mukden. The authorities anticipate a halt (there, enabling the organisation 01 a scheme-of defence. This expectation is based on a belief that both sides were so exhausted that a haU jvas unavoidable. According to an earlier Mukden message part of the Russian army, while following a waggon road, was. in danger of interception. Ihe Japanese to the westward were the chief menace to a retreat, but were ield in check ; nevertheless a considerable portion of the transport had to be left behind owing to the jquagmires. The Daily Mail states that eighty railway cars filled with wounded j-i'ly traverse the Mukden line. The totmieß from shrapnel are frightful, jjjjd the majority of the victims succua* o° the )° ume r-

J.MLENT LEADERS. pkhutt IBS IN RECENT FIGHTCA nSc' NUMBER 63,000 (■Received Si , t"* mber 9 ' 13 am ' ) (±veceivea . VBQS Sep tember 8. Apparently m - ***** hi* been raedved from G'*** Kuropatkin, and nothing from fl««» Kurok JThe combined ca. «•"»• J n «* recent fighting are l ,< "**"■ Petersburg to have to *««« l 63 - 000 - CZAH'S CIPHER ME.SBAGEDELIVERED TO THE PA TROLLING CRUISERS. .(Received September 9, 1.3 a •"*•) LONDON, September 8 - 'The Czar's message which was dclixercd to the volunteer ships Sain't Petersburg and Smolensk was in cipher. !

.VARIOUS ITEMS. | LONDON, September 7. Captain Wirrens, of the Bayan, replaces Admiral Prince Uchstomsky. France notifies that the Russian cruiser Diana has been disarmed at Saigon, and China notifies the interning of the Askold's and Grosovo 's crews at treaty ports. SEOUL, September 7. The Japanese-Korean treaty stipulates that Korea's adviser in foreign affairs must be a foreigner, not a -Japanese.

A WAR CORRESPONDENT'S OPINION.

BRISBANE, September 8. | (Commander Colquhoun (who acted ' ras a war correspondent for Ihe Times in the Far East) was misreiiresentod in regard to the duration of the war. What he said was that with the fall of Port Arthur and the .defeat of General Kuropatkm the ■.war should n o t last two months. Comparing ' the Russians and the .(Japanese, there was, ho said, no .question as to the superiority of the Japanesc-onsoa, at any rate. lne> were splendid seimen, and the intense patriotism of the army and navy is what is going to carry them through. One does not meet a soldier or sailor who says he is going to fight for his country. He is going to die for it, and an army with Japanese patriotism is irresistible. In reply to the question, ' Co you (attribute the success of the Japan■eeeto patriotism?" Commander Colquhoun replied, "No.; there is more jJve certain essentials to back It uh The great success of the Japan-. Je'has been through perfect preparXns in peace time, there being aJooltttely' nothing laekfos. « «•

CABLE NEWS.

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.)

feated, it will bo for want of money, or they will be crushed by numbers. 1 don't think any nation in the world ever entered on a war so well prepared as the Japanese were. They did not muddle along here and there, aud they deserved all the success they got." He saw the preparations that had been made, and particularly the naval preparations, after the war tx-gon, and nothing had been forgotten. Their first base they operated in until the beginning of May, and there was not a chart, except a Jaujmese chart, showing that base. That part of the seas was quite unsur.veyod, except by Japan, and they had. it not only surveyed, but buoyed. Ordinary charts showed this magnificent anchorage as dry land. The surveying took years, but the place was ready for the fleet, and when the ships retired to it after the attack on the Bth February, they found houses built, with telegraph offices, and so on, and in a few minutes news was in Tokio that gave an idea of the preparations of the Japanese.

UGHT FOB THE MO-TIEN PASS,

The brief and disastrous attempt made by the Russians to overwhelm toe small Japanese force guarding the entrance to the Mo-tien Pass was a bloody affair, says a Reuter special correspondent. The Japanese again exhibited great resourcefulness ahd courage, and the Russians once more wasted many lives. 1 have seen enough to justify the | estimate of the Russian killed and wounded at more than 200. The Japanese losses probably amounted to sixty killed and wounded. The pass opens out upon a funnelshaped slope, rising a quarter of a mile from the valley, and flanked by hills. Thirty-six Japanese were quartered in a Chinese h o use near the bottom of a hill which commanded the approach of the p a ss- Two other companies slept near the trench. Between 3 and 4 o'clock in darkness with a heavy log ensihroudiJig the hills, two battalions of the 10th and 24th East Siberian Regiments, with 100 cavalry, approached the Japanese position. They surrounded -the pickets and the outposts in the house, gained a position favourable for rushing the trench, while several companies attempted to flank both sides or the Japanese position.

When the fighting began, tlhe building where the outposts were quartered became a slaughterhouse. The Japanese, aroused from their sleep, seized their swords and bayonets. The Russians and Japanese were sooon mixed in such confusion that it was impossible for them to use their rifles. The best fighting, occurred at the trench, and before lpng it was a h a nd-to-hand struggle. The Japanese, half naked, ran to man the trenches. The first onslaught was repelled,

but the Russians charged twice again within half an hour. The remainder of the regiment to which the outpost company belonged reinforced them, and began to drive the Russians tack, as soon as it was sufficiently light to distinguish them. Two hours after the beginning of the attack the Russians were forced a mile down the valley. Trre trench and hill-side approaches to it were thickly covered with dead and wounded, and tho blood-spatted stones and grass everywhere testified to the hotness of the fighting. The Chinese stretcher-bearers, impassive under the dropping bullets, were collecting the wounded and carrying them to the hospital in a roadside temple, where they were laid in rows under the huge painted plaster gods. Japanese details, using their trenching spades, buried the dead where they fell, and impartially brought water and gave cigarettes t 0 their own and the Russian wounded.