The San Francisco call., 1904-03-01
The. Scat Of Var.
BY C. FREDERICK WRIGHT. Ii. D.
fauthor' Of .'Asiatic Russia" etc)

The war between Russia and Japan
is aptly compared 10 a contest between
q whale and an elephant. In the long
run it, viii be Of little avail for Japan
10 win svlctofies on the sea and obtain
a fOQthold. upon the. border Of the
Asiatic continent Even the possession
of Korea VIII give them little perma-
nent advantage IN contending with an
expanding land power 'uch as Russia
approaching from the west. A little at
tention. 10 the physical geography OF
the region viii show how strongly in
trenched' is the Russian. position. even
though she temporarily lose her su-
premacy upon the sea.
Korea is a mountainous peninsula, re
lated 70 Manchuria somewhat as Italy
is TO Central Europe 1t contains an
area OF $4,000 square miles, being about
as large as New England with haH Of
New York. added. anchuria has. an
area Of nearly. 400 900 square miles. be-
ing about. as large. as that portion Of
the United States east Of the Missis-
sin1Di River and north Of the Ohio
Across its entire northwestern border
: Korea is separated from Manchuria by
a range ef mountains almost as, mac
:. .cessible As the Alps which separate
Italy from Europe The southwestern
serminus Of This mountain. range is
.promontOry 10. the Chinese. Sea. and
furnishes the remarkable harbors Of
=: Port Arthur and .Dalny: But a. line Of
islands practically continues. the range.
across. the: mouth of the gulf Of Pechiii
: to- the -Shantung Peninsula, which is
also a lpountainpus mass: Port ARTHUR
: on the north and Weihaiwei 'en the
south were the strongest fortresses of
the Chinese empire, which were taken
by the ;JaDanese in their war with
CHINA in 1885. =
:: The plan Of: the campaigns against
China was. essentially similar to that
upon: which the 'Japanese have set out
against Russia. The fleet WAS first at
tackled and disabled and driven into
2 W.erheiwei. where 1T was finally de-
stroy5d, For the capture uf Port Al
thur a force was. landed on the Lao
tung Peninsula TO the north Of Port Ar
thur, Between. there and Newchwang.
Thence, approaching. Port Arthur in the
> rear. the JaDanese+ easily dyercame the
Chinese. forces ana made their victory.
complete by the capture of the fort A
: similar plan. VAS f.ursued in capturing
Weihaiwei. Both these. Notifications
had been laid Clit-fby the highest en-
siheering skill and We're supposed by
II Hung $Chang 10 be fnpr6gnable.
When this was proved false by their
capture. he is reported to- have said that
they were ImDTegna5le only in front,
and that-it was unfair TO take them in
the rear. It. reuiains TO be seen. whetb-
'er the Russians have overlooked the
jmportance OF rear fortifications, hut
more important still TO see whether the
Russian soldiers lighting on a retreat
ing line behind fortifications can be
overcome as easily. as the Chinese sol
diers were. -.
But even if Port :Arthur should be
taken that would be merely an out
post. The Teai position OF Russian
strength lies in the valley extending
500 miles from ..Newchwang up the
LiaOtung River and over the low pass
into the Sungari River. passing by the
large cities Of MuRden, Telling, Kai-
wan and Quanchentze. This is an ex-
ceedingly fruitful yalleX from, so to-
100 miles in width. penetrated through
its entire length BY the Russian-Cii-
nese Eastern Railroad. It is in this
portion Of ManchurIa that the larger
part Of the population Of the province
is concentrated. The region can am
ply supply. tho Russian army with all
the food il needs for man and beast.
one Of the first things accomplished
by the RUssisns after Completing the
railroad was 70 huifd- steam. aour mills.
at various points along the line. Only
a kw months ago I receiIed a letter
from one OF the prominent. Russia:n
engineers asking me to pat hftn into
communication with an American firm
that could supply his steam grist mill
on the SunEari Riycr with the requi-
site machinery. two other. such mills
/ know have been. built az aafbin. SO
The conlnlissaq-iat Of the Russian army
u.in present fo problem, The Rls-
sian army caif. neter- be far from its.
base. Of supplies.
As cavalry is likely TO nlsy. a most
important part in. the war It is spe-
cialsy worthy OF notice. taat the north
ern part of ahis valley is famous for
fts horses: .Quanehcntze being one Of
thee greatest horse markets in the
Scorld: for.- stretching feFtiler off 70
The northwest there ara vast plains
TCl Vel .9feHsnl .RnueT clsLlNflIlDi7,
hich are occupied mostly. by roying
bands of.Manchu Tartars: whose psin-
cipal wealth Consists jan horses. As
IS well knogF. the .Coss5cl;s. who form
. large portion.cf the Russian army Of
occupation. feel most at home osf
horseback and this is the branch Of
the service IN which the japanese are
specially sefcient. There arG no
horses worth speaking OF in Japan.
ard their casaly is consequently
scarcely more. than 4 caricature. In.
horsemanship the Cossack has the
same superiority over the japanese
that the Japanese has over Russia in
seamanship.
As already said. the Russians occu-
pying this central valley. OF southern
Nanchuria are protected on the east-,
ern flank throughout the entire dis
tance. extending from Newchwang to
Vladivostok, a distance of 500 or 700
miles by the lofty snow-cIad Long
White Mountains which can be pen
etrated from the Korean side BY an