The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-02-16
THE WAR STATUS.

The course of the war. as revealed In
this mornings ca blegrams. is precisely,
I'm its strategic trend. what the readers
of this column have been led to expect.
Several days ago the Advertiser called
into question the story, which had sold
an extra edition or two on the streets,
that the landing of Japanese troops on
the Liaotung peninsula for an attack
on Port Arthur had begun. We pointed
out that such a movement would nat
urally wait until the fleet had finished
its work. Only yesterday the real
descent upon the Liaotong peninsula
came-and II wasn't made by way of
THE Yalu river, either.
The truth of the situation is that the
Japanese are beginning to concentrate
their energies on the capture of Port
Arthur. the key to the Russian posi-
ton, the joint terminus, with Dalny,
of the Trans Siberian railroad and the
only naval repair depot of any conse-
quence which the Russians have In the
Far East, except Nladivostok 1t Is all
| important that Japan should capture
this place at once. If, in the mean
time, an expedition is sent to the Yalu
It will be for the purpose of striking
the railroad along which men and sup
plies for the relief of Port Arthur are
presumably being rushed. For this pur-
pose 10000 men should be ample, the
Russians having, at last accounts, but
one division on the river.
The news from Russian sources of the
Japanese landings on the Liaotong
peninsula is that of the discontinue of
the invading force. From the small
number of Japanese troops employed
at a task of such magnitude it may be
inferred that the landings were but
feints intended to draw the Russian
forces away from the point actually
chosen for the Decentralization of an
army. There can be no other explana-
ton Of the landing or attempted landing
of 600 or even of IL, 0OO men in the face
of an enemy believed to number $4,000
at the least.
This paper judging from personal OBJ
servations at Port Arthur, does not
share the belief expressed in London
and Picking that the capture of the
Russian stronghold will be the holiday
task of n week. Port Arthur is the
Gibraltar of the East. 1t is one of the
four or five really great fortified ports
in the world. Nothing showed the
pusillanimity of the Chinese in 1894
Ill'Ic IMAM tHtlI Iulth VI tlt
stronghold when japanese began a
siege. Should the place fall easily to
the Japanese of today, then the Rus
slams may well give up the war.
Failing to hold Port Arthur they could
not hope to hold anything.
AS for the further news of the morn
ing, the Japanese have taken Rus
sian coaling station in south Korea,
Alexieff has gone to Harbin which is
the strategic railway center of south
Manchuria. The Russian Mediter-
ranean squadron, or part Of it, has
appeared in the Red Sea. A heavy
division of Japanese troops has landed
at Chemulpo, the seaport of Seoul
pronounced SowD making a total of
1900 men in that quarter. For the
second time in three weeks the supreme
Russian military command in Manchu-
ria has been changed.
The news of French neutrality goes
far to assuage the fear of European
outbreak.
Nothing has been heard from the So
600 men which a special to the ma
rines' put on the Yalu river two days
ago for an immediate conflict with 10000
| Russians.