MR. BALTIC FLEET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7748, 25 February 1905, Page 3

MR. BALTIC FLEET.

KEW TOHI'KBO BOATS l-'OU JAI'AN. LONDON, Feb. 2.' J. Danish reports state that the third Baltic Fleet keeps close to the Dutch coast, avoiding the Dogger Bank. Ti* Japanese, on the 20th, advanced through the mountains, captured the Tziuzelite Pass, alter several i»„.ais' fighting. The Japanese have commissioned ten torpedo boats to be built locally. They expected to also construct within a year a complete fleet of twenty-knot destroyers. Some will be built at the Government and others at private yards. THE BATTLE OF THE HLN KlVElt. DETAILS BY MAIL. ltusbiau Headquarters, Hunan Mountain. February 1. TheVive d.iys.' battle oa the Hun & Kiver Bad yielded no palpable le- . s.u't, both- sides practically maintaining then former positions, though it is true, that at a heavy cu<.t the Uu-jsians succeeded in diiving the Japanese out of the advanced posi- ""* tions and repelling their nanKingi column. The Kusulan cavalry proved extremely etlicicnt. Then; is again a hill in the conflict, and it is expected military operations w«il be suspended uuti- the end ol February). The five days' combat, which will go down in history as the battle of the Hun Kiver, was fought out on a seemingly unending plain, which in broken only by southern amethyst mountains around Yentai, the solitary eminence of which is the Liaoyqnd tower of bloody memory. The bright glare of the san reflected from a dazzling expanse of snow was painful to the eye:., and it w0..; with difficulty that one could follow here and there blue* streaks marking the Hussion colums or wavering skirmish lines dashing against what resembled dull, gray rocks;, but which in reality were the Milages of Lidiatiun and Tanlepu, and the extensive hamlet of Sandepas, bastioned by Chinese defences, and converUd by the Japanese into veritable fortresses. Exposed to the intense cold of a Manchurian winter, mounds of earth had become like granite, and as impenetrable as the steel sides of a modern battleship. For live days Russian ..soMicrs hurled themselves against the*4cfences, and the field artillery pounded.,them until the frosty air reverberated 'Vi'th the thunder of cannon, the din ot.._ bursting shells and the' rattle of nufeVtry, but neither steel-pointed nor hickle bullets availed against the froa™, earth- * works. The gunners actually wept witjj des|>air at the impotence oil tho attack. Mortar batteries came up in the ho|»e of demolishing the fortiQcatioo.. Night and day the stream of shells poured against the earthworks, but had very little effect. Men seemed indifferent to hunger and cold, which latter was of Arctic intensity. Their lingers, hands, and _feet were benumbed, whi'e stinging snow and dust blinded them. The eSiglltesiL wound caused excruciating pain. Warm blood no sooner iMided from laccrtated flesh than it befran freeze. The wounded could r.ot be 'left exposed, and if they did not »e----cetvc attention within an hoar liny died. The surgeons, their assi.-aams, and nurse? were almost powerless in the bandaging of wounds for they were obliged to wear ltnth't glo\es or mittens, in >rder to resist the cold. The men seemed to be livingi *"= agaih the horrors of the winter campaign of 1812 against the Turk*. Everything that could be done was done, but man was powerless in the face of nature, which heaped tortures upon the troops, and defeated the wellfithoughl-of plan of the commandcr. The situation as it further develops is better realised and understood, though it is not less ominous, as the weather has moderated, and the Japanese arc aggressive.