Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1904-09-29
VAST ARMY FOR EAST

| VAST ARMY FOR EAST
RUSSIA WILL SEND DOUBLE THE
PRESENT NUMBER OF MEN.
wilma Officer Appointed to Command
| Of the Second Manchurian Army.
Definitely Siiences Talk Of For.
| eign Intervention.
st. Petersburg. Sept. 2s.-The d.
vision and reorganization OF the Man.
chur1an army. regarding which there
have been rumors ever since the bat
tie Of Lao Yang, was officially an
nounced in an imperial rescript ap-
pointing Major General Grippenberg,
commander of the Third army corps,
In the province of Wilma, as command.
or OF the Second army corps. now be-
Ing modified for immediate dispatch
to the far east, leaving General Kour-
| opatkln In command of the First
army. The emperor is personally con-
vinced that the political, as we'll as
the military, prestige OF the empire is
at stake and that every other consid-
GRAFTON must give way before the ext.
gencies of war. The resources of the
empire in men and money must be
drained if necessary in order to turn
the scale and vindicate the power of
Russia. The reorganization amounts
| to formal notice to the world as the
emperor frankly explains in his re-
script, that he intends to vastly H.
crease the number of troops at the
theater of war in order to force the
struggle to successful issue in the
shortest possible time 1t is intended
to silence definitely all talk of for.
eign intervention by the announce
ment that Russia means to fight out
| the issue with Japan on the field of
battle. Probably 100000 men will be
placed in the field. Five corps, the
Third. Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Six
teenth, are already destined for the
front, and it Is expected that five more
corps will be sent forward. Eventual
ly, the creation of this second army
involves the selection of commander
tn-chief. Not only is there no intima-
ton in the rescript that General
| kouropatkin will have command Of
both armies, but he is placed on the
same footing as General Grippenberg
In the best informed circles there is
little idea that viceroy Alexieff, the
| present nominal commander.in.chief,
will exercise the actual functions Of
commander of the 100000 or 100000
men that Russia has resolved to put
IN the field
1t is the best opinion that Grand
DIXIE Nicholas Michaelovitch, in
spector general of cavalry, will attain
the high command. occupying in the
war with Japan the position held by
his father in the war with Turkey.
There are various reports regarding
Viceroy Alexierf's destiny 1t is
claimed in some quarters that he will
be recalled and Grand Duke Nicholas
become viceroy as we'll as commander
in-chief.
Recognizes Fighting Powers of Japs.
Russta's recognition of the foot that
the forces now in the far east cannot
successfully prosecute the war against
the men Japan is able to put in the
field, and the knowledge that the lat
ter power Is now mobilizing 100000
more men for the front, and the de-
cision to reorganize the Russian army
upon gigantic scale In order to be
able to assume the offensive quickly,
marks a distinctly new phase of the
war. The physical difficulties to be
reckoned with. in promptly getting
out such large reinforcements over
a single line of railway more than s.
600 miles long, are fully realized; but
with the circum-Baikal railway COM
pleted, the authorities expect to prac-
tically double the present capacity
| for the transportation of men, mu-
nttions and provisions and send out
two corps instead of one monthly.
Within three months three corps are
expected to reach Hardin, swelling
the total number of Russian soldiers
in Manchuria to considerably over
100000 In the meantime, the armies
at the front, continually augmented
by fresh troops, will act as buffer
to hold in check the Japanese until
the army will be able to, assume the
aggressive through sheer weight Of
/ numbers.
/ In the reorganization. special plans
have been made made to overcome
the deficiency In guns under which
the Russians have been laboring.
Over 900 additional field and rapid
Ore guns are to be sent to the front.
The great struggle for the mastery
In the far east now seems destined to
assume Titanic proportions.
The reiteration Of the now familiar
statement that the military situation
at the front Is unchanged. is believed
to indicate that In view Of the shift
ing of forces. the probability OF fresh
important Developments there Is not
immediate. General Kouropatkin
deems 1t wise to make public unofficial
advices, which indicate that Marquis