The San Francisco call., 1904-12-13
Grant Wallace Re-
tells Story of LidO-
gdng Battle.


Half a hundred officers of the army
of the United States listened last even
ing at the Press Club to technical
discussion by Grant Wallace of the op-
armies in Manchuria. Wallace, through
the skillful application of strenuous
journalistic theories, witnessed the bat
tie of Laoyang from the first boom OF
tie guns to the closing thrust of the
bayonets. In consequence he was in a
position to tell the distinguished mill
tary experts that listened to his talk
many things they wanted to know since
the little empire of the Far East forced
the Western world to sit up and take
notice.
Though Wallaces remarks were con-
fined primarily to the terrible struggle
at Liaoyang, which has been told and
retold from a hundred different view
points, his statements never tagged in
interest, and his preliminary and side
remarks contained information that the
interested followers of the accounts OF
the war had not been able to obtain
before.
Heretofore the news that division
of Japanese troops had been engaged
and had attained certain results left
no greater impression on the reader
than that a result had been attained
by unit of the Japanese army, which
might be anything from one to a mil
lion men. Wallace in giving the nu-
merical formation of the army last
evening supplied a long felt want.
RESOURCES OF JAPAN.
First, he said, the resources of the
Japanese, from the standpoint of men
and other resources of war, had been
largely underestimated In his opin-
ion (and his opinion was based on in
formation he could see no reason to
discrediD the Japanese could put into
the field, if finances could be found to
sustain the troops, an army of from
four TO five millions of men. The regu-
lar army, including the first and sec
ond reserves. totaled 500, 900 men and
after these were exhausted came the
national army, which raised the figure
always, Of course. dependent upon the
question of finance) to the enormous
figure named.
He had been told, he said, by cred
ible authority, that in the arsenals of
TOXIC there were munitions Of war for
million men outside of the army at
present operating in Manchuria and
that with little difficulty another mill
lion men could be put into the field to
battle for the Mikado and the en-
pire.
Rnfnrrfnc dirnnflxr 70 fh, F1,- . -
of the Japanese army, he said the unit
Of the fighting force was called the sec
tion. The section is conposed OF
eighty-f1ve men, the company Of from
24O TO 26S men, the battalion of 1000, or
practically four companies; the regi-
ment of three battaIions. the brigade
of two regiments and the division of
two brigades. These figures, he said
placed from 1900 to $4,000 men in the
division, including the smaller
branches Of artillery, cavalry and pom
toon platoon. These figures were ap-
plauded by the military men present
because in them they began to see the
dawn of understanding break. so far
as numbers are concerned. in reports
that are to come of yet unfought bat
ties and reports of battles that have
been fought.
LIAOYANG A BARREN VICTORY.
Wallace hazarded the opinion that
the war in the Far East had now
dwindled down to a question of finance,
and, he said. 1t was his view that
Russia would best be able to weather
the storm from this standpoint, at
least until she was able to throw such
forces into Manchuria that she could
save her face" if nothing more. The
battle of Liaoyang, he concluded. was
at best barren victory for the jap
anese; it gave them nothing but terri
tory they did not want, save for the
fact that it deprived the enemy of a
strategic base, but he acquitted the
japanese Of the charge that error on
their part had been responsible for the
safe retreat Of the Russians to Muk-
den
For ten days" he said, "the jap
anese had fought against the in
trenched enemy. OF my personal
knowledge the Takushan army under
Nodzu had fought for five days and
five nights without sleep and with lit
tie food. When Liaoyang fell and the
excitement of the contest was gone the
men fell asleep at their posts. Kuroki's
army was equally exhausted. Human
endurance had gone the limit and the
Russians, driven from their nagnifi-
Gently fortified base, were suffered to
escape. Sleeping men lay prone beside
the dead, both happy. The dead had
given their lives for the Mikado, the
sleeping had lived to see the enemy
flee, beaten from the field"