The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-08
st. Petersburg in Ignorance Of
Situation at the Front.
Over 800 Additional Guns Have
Reached KurOpatkin.
OFFENSIVE MOVEMENT
On the Part of the Russian
Forces Is Looked For.
The War Office Maintains Silence
on the Outlook.

st. Petersburg, Oct. 8, 1880 D. m.-
| The meagreness of the news from the
front is increasing the uncertainty re-
garding the developments. There is
good warrant for the belief that Gen.
Kuropatkin is strengthening his left
! flank to meet the Japanese turning
movement, his troops occupying a tri-
angle from Fushan to Mukden and Tie
pass. over 300 guns have arrived at
the front, and the activity of the Rus
sian skirmishers below the Hun river
creates the impression that Kuropat-
kin may contemplate assuming the
offensive. The war office, however,
gives no encouragement of this idea.
though naturally if such a move is
contemplated the war Office could not
be expected to admit it.
Fight to a Finish.
| st. Petersburg, Oct. S.-RepIying to
the statement of Count Okuma, leader
of the Japanese progressive party that
the war with Russia would be long,
but that Japan would win in the end.
the Novoe Vremya today declares
that the idea of a possible compromise
with Japan has been abandoned and
that the war must be prosecuted by
Russia in such a. way that there can
be no possibility of renewing the
struggle. Europe for thirty years was
under the menace of revenge for
AlSace.
eff we conclude peace with Japan,
all our efforts in the far east will he
valueless and we shall have to spend
enormous sums to keep up our arma-
ment there. The japanese, once for
all, must be driven out of the Asiatic
continent
1t is now accepted here that the re-
ported naval fight off Port Arthur was
purely imaginative. The naval ex-
perts Of the newspapers dwell on the
/ in hra Ii
out after the disastrous sortie of Aug
ust 10. The general opinion is that
the squadron could not venture out
unless something had happened to the
Japanese warships of which there is
no knowledge here. In any case the
Russian ships could not go to the
neutral port of Chefoo. but must head
for Vladivostok. If the Baltic fleet
was approaching. however, the whole
situation would be different.
Circum- -BaiI1aI Open for Freight.
st. Petersburg, Oct. 8.-Prince Hill
koff, minister of railways, has arrived
personally experimenting the con-
struction of the cfrcum- Baikal rail-
road. He says the whole Siberian line
is working perfectly. The circum-
Baikal branch is open for freight
traffic, but passengers are still cross
ing the lake in ferry boats, that being
the shortest, the ferry boats taking
two hours to steam across, about 80
miles, whereas the trains take four
hours to cover the railroad route
around the lake, about 73 miles. Work
is still proceeding day and night on
the circum- -Baikal road, electric lights
being used at night, so as to have the
line in complete order before the lake
freezes over.
Hand Grenades Are Deadly.
Toxic, Oct. S.-According to a pri-
vate letter received from a Japanese
officer now with the besieging forces
before Port Arthur, the Russians arc
effectively using hand grenades, filled
with high explosive. The execution
of these grenades when accurately
thrown is deadly, the officer says, and
their use probably accounts for the
closeness of the fighting.