The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1895-01-10
FROM JAPAN.
No Butchery Of Civilians By the
Japs at Port Arthur.
Gen. Won Hanneken, German, the Active
Head Of the Chinese Army Now-Ile
Has Power That No Other For.
eigner Ever Had Before.

TOXIC, japan, Dec. 21.-(Correspond-
ence of the United Press, per steamer
China. Full Investigations 60 to show
that considerable notifications must
be applied to the first reports circu-
lated as to the needless ferocity on the
part of the Japanese troops and land
transport corps engaged in the capture
of Port Arthur. Two circumstances
unquestionably did impart exceptional
quality to the fighting of the Japs.
One was the ruthless murder of their
wounded and the horrible mutilation
of their dead in days Immediately pre-.
cedinR the final assaults. The other
was the fact that the Chinese soldiers
used the town of Port Arthur as o
refuge after the fall of the forts, and
that many of the citizens had been
armed by order of the Taotai.
The defeated braves, escaping into
houses in the town, threw civilian SUR
coats over their uniforms and resisted
capture SO resolutely that the fighting
at one stage assumed house-to-house
character, in which civilians also took
part. The confusion inevitable under
such circumstances, heightened by the
pitch darkness of stormy November
night, seems to have caused some rath-
er wild use of swords and firearms, re-
sulting in the death of few women
and children. But the Japs indignant
ly denied that any soldiers willingly
leveled rifle or raised a sword against
noncombatant civilian, still less
against woman or child. After all.
the arithmetic of casualties shows that
there was little margin for these al
legged excesses. -> s"S'
There seems to be little doubt that
Emperor Kwang Su has conferred on
Gen. Won Hanneken a commission such
as no foreigner ever before held in the
middle kingdom. Hanneken is said to
have been placed in such a position
that he has direct access to the throne.
He is empowered to raise and equip an
army competent to defend the empire,
and to fill its upper ranks with Euro
pean officers. Rumor alleges that he
is engaged in procuring several hun
dred of his compatriots from Germany,
and that German arsenals will be found
willing to supply all necessary war
material on credit, trusting to be re-
couped when peace is restored.
Viceroy Ii recently submitted to the
throne a most imposing statement of
the military bulwarks surrounding the
throne. 1t appears that his majesty,
| Kwang Su, rendered solicitous for the
safety of his capital by the constantly
arriving reports of Japanese victories,
asked the great earl what measures
had been adopted to check the final
advance of the foe. Earl Ii replied
that they had a, quarter of million
| of men at the northern approach of the
| capital, fifty thousand at the eastern,
one hundred thousand at the southern,
an unstated number of thousands in
Tien-Tsin. at the headquarters of the
viceroy himself, and a big Tartar army
in Pekin. Ih short, LIS report shows
half million of men under arms to
| protect the capital. Nevertheless
| Kwang Su has packed his trunks, and
is ready to fly at moments notice.
| What is known as the strong foreign
| policy party in Japan commands ma
| jority of votes in the lower house OF
the diet, and its members are the gov
ernment's opponents. These men stand
| in a way to moderate the settlement
of the quarrel between their country
| and China. Their organs advocate
nothing less than the absorption OF
Manchuria, the Liau Tung Peninsula
and Formosa into the Japanese EN-
| pire and the exaction of heavy in
demnity from China. They talk large
ly of Japan rising to the level Of
her destiny, of her responsibility tc
build some new edifice of administra
tion on the ruins of the dynasty she i:
about to pull down and to the folly Of
abandoning to western aggression the
fruits OF her hard-won success. tits
scarcely possible that any terms OF
peace acceptable to China will satisfy
these politicians