The sun., 1903-10-18

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thirteen battalions Of pioneers, made up Of
twenty-oight companies, which were to b
increased to thirty-nine; thirteen battalions
Of train, one railway battalion, one bat
talon OF telegraphers and linemen. three
regiments Of coast and two battalions oi
foot artillery. The second line. reserves
and garrisons, was composed OF thirty-six
battalions. ..
The peace strength Of 1909 was e,11o COM
m1ssioned officers and 5,5SS men. and the
war strength 3s2 ,22O, ready for Immediate
service.
THE RUSSIAN FORCE AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY.
As To Chs Russian army, who shall sayY
Ever since Port Arthur was snatched from
the victorious Japanese Russian troop
ships and transports have been landing
men and arms and supplies in Chinese terri
tory and az soon as the Siberian railway
was completed that also began to pour Ito
swarm into the Orient
II nation has seven years In which to
assemble an army and its outfit, even a.
far away from home as China is from Russia,
wonderful things may be done.
And wonderful things have been done.
but Just how many men and what supplies
are awaiting the conflict under the sign Of
the bear only the Great Bear himself knows,
and his political system Is such that he can
keep the information To himself.
Nobody doubts, however, that II Russia
lays on Corea the hand that would pre-
cipitate hostilities It will be done with tho
confident belief that she has gathered Q
fighting corps sufficient to make good the
threat. She can afford to wait. Can
Japan?
One moro material element, potent IN
determining tho fate Of armies and navies,
remains to be considered-the where
withal. Rusda's purse IL longer than
Japan's. She could pay after the jap had
gone into bankruptcy.
THE PERSONAL EQUATION.
Most OF the observers and the writer's
who have tried to work out tho personal
equation involved in tho meeting Of tho
Russian and the Jap, which seems inevit-
able sooner or later. have figured that,
take him for all in all, the little yellow man
is as good fighter as his stalwart foA
They have seen him overwhelm and
rout the Chinese, they have seen him march
side by side with his white brothers on tho
way to Pekin, nimble. resolute, fearless,
untiring, cheerful. and have said among
themselves: Here at last is tho model
Asiatic, the equal OF the European
That is the majority opinion. But there
is growing up contrary belief, which can
not be ignored, because It is advanced BY
men whose intelligence and experience
and opportunities for observation entitle
their views 10 respect.
These dissenters point out, IN the first
place, that the Japanese have never yet
locked horns with a white people. What
ever they have won has been won from
their own kind. Their wars have been
with Cinnamon or among themselves.
YOUNG IN sEAooINo.
Moreover, they are not a seafaring people.
They have not yet had time to acquire the
habit Of the sea, which counts wonderfully
when the big guns begin to speak. For
more than two hundred years they closed
their ports and held aloof from maritime
traffic, and their critics say that they are
as yet Indifferent sailors.
Il don't know whether the Japanese
have had more than their share of ma
rine disasters since they began to Build up
an ocean commerce. said a naval officer
who has served long in Eastern waters,
"but I do know that the insurance COM
panies will not insure big steamship COM
manded by Japanese. 1t wasn't 30 in
the beginning, but now all the Japanese
liners are captained by Europeans or Amer
leans. Isn't that fact rather signihcant'
This same officer is one Of the compar-
atively few who reject the prevailing optim-
ism as to Japanese military potentiality.
II base my opinion said he to SuN
reporter, 'on considerable knowledge Of
Japanese history and long and intimate
study Of Japanese character and customs.
To sum it all up, believe that the Japanese
has not the stamina Of the European and
the American.
4He is brave, patriotic. ardent, absolutely
fearless OF death, splendid soldier, but
think that in the wreck and strain and
carnage OF naval battle with white mon
there will come a time when he will lie
down and refuse to fight.
Il could give you instances from Japan
ese history which tend to bear me out. For
example, in 1887, eighty-four petty knights
of the Chosiu clan formed a conspiracy to
the present Emperor. who was
then living at Kioto and was ruler in name
only. The plot miscarried.
What would any similar band Of white
conspirators have done? Why, try to get
away OF course, fight to the last ditch.
What did the eighty-four Japs do? They
went out on neighboring hill and every
man of them committed hari-kiri without
an effort to save himself. That was the
result Of custom, fatalism, the habit Of
mind which leads people to go just 80
far with desperate enterprise and then,
if it miscarries, surrender to destiny.
"To give another and perhaps more
easily appreciable illustration, every white
man who understands how to bargain
with an Oriental knows that the Japanese,
if you press him and corner him, will throw
up his hands just as he seems to be most
insistent on his demand. and exclaim
'Skataganin which means 1t can't be
helped
Its the same with every other difaculty
that can't be overcome-'Skata 1t
can't be helped.
Some of us believe that II tho Japanese
and Russians meet in naval battle, the
laps will fight bravely at the beginning
and then their fatalism will assert itself