Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-03-09


 are again in fighting trim, except the Retvizan, which is lying at the neck of the entrance to the harbor and serves the purpose Of strong bat feiy The garrison there is 10000 strong and there are provisions enough to last two years. Trains on the Manehurian line are running reg ularly in triple sections, at twenty minute intervals. There is notable revulsion of feeling here among for eigners against Japan, based on the fear that she is trying to drag the Chinese into the war.
 Tokio, March S.-It is said that Where has already been a decisive na- < val engagement in the vicinity of E Nladivostok and tidings of it are anx- iously awaited. The Japanese fleet : did not, it is said, go to Vladivostok for the purpose of bombarding the 7 town, but to locate and attack the armored cruisers Gromoboi, Rossia, Rurik and the cruiser Bogatyr, the Russian fleet stationed there. It is understood here that when the Jap- anese fleet arrived there on Sunday last it found the Russian squadron absent. If this is true it gave the Japanese squadron advantages ill the way of avoiding inshore batteries, at the same time putting it i'll a position to prevent the Russian ships re-enter- ing the harbor. It is doubted that the Japanese withdrew their entire squadron unless the location of the enemy had been discovered, as it meant surrendering the advantage of being in a position between the en-. emy and the enemy's base. There is 8 strong possibility that the Japanese found the Russian ships in the vicin- fty of Possiet bay and gave them battle there The names and num- bers of ships in the Japanese squad ron have been kept secret, but it was probably sufficiently strong to separ- ate into two divisions. the one to guard Vladivostok and the other to cruise in search of the Russian ships It is said that the newly pur- chased cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga are taking part In the present move ment off Vladivostok. The navy de partment expects. to receive dispatches tomorrow from Gensan, where it was planned that the fleet should call after the operation involving an att tack upon the Russian squadron had been concluded. The Japanese are quite confident in the ability of their squadron to signally defeat the Rus sian ships, and laughingly say that rhe big Russian cruisers. which stand unusually high out of the water, make excellent targets
 Paris, March 9--In pursuance of ST. ders issued by Minister of War Andre. work has been begun with a view of placing the coast defenses ill a state of readiness. A hundred coast artil- lerymen have arrived at Marseilles and are occupied In perfecting the har- Dor batteries, force of naval me- cllanics is working on tile island ap- breaches and the trials of various kinds of heavy ordnance are progress ing actively at Marseiiles and else where
 These measures are not considered significant except as an indication of the determination of the officials to have the coast defenses in q state of preparedness.
 St Petersburg, March 9-Careful in quiry concerning the outlook in the BalkanS depelops that the prevailing opinion i'll government as we'll as ill diplomatic circles is against m out break of war i'll the spring, although the danger is not considered past A perfect understanding exists between Russia and Austria, and besides the Russian authorities appear to be sat- asfied regarding the attitude of Bull garia. What assurances the authori- ties have concerning Bulgaria are not known, but they do not tally with di- rect information from other sources, representing Bulgaria as moDilizing with having her plans perfected for an invasion of Turkey, and as being confident that she can defeat the 2Turks single-handed. Evidently the porte also is alarmed at the outlook, as an American Ca representative of an ordnance firm, who came here to act as broker in the sale of South American warships to Russia, but who arrived too late) has been re- quested to go to Constantinople inn mediately the sultan desiring to pur- chase a large supply of guns.
 1t is mistake to imagine that Russia is so engrossed with affairs i'll the far east as to be unable to give attention to the Balkans. he has carefully refrained from removing troops from the vicinity of the Rou- manian frontier and will be prepared if necessary to assume her share in the event of war.
 Some interesting facts i'll connec- ton with the first Japanese attack on Port Arthur are beginning to arrive. Tn the main 1t appears that the Japan ese shells were defective and many of them, still unexploded, were found ly- ang about the streets. The coal sup ply at Port Arthur is said to be suf- 7 f1cient to last the warships for two wears, but the docking facilities are. Inadequate The only large dock at Port Arthur is unable to accommo- date vessels of over fifty feet beam. The Associated Press has received q chart, showing the exact position of the warshfps during the bombardment of February 8. It shows the three torpedoed vessels aground near the xa4afrfflfsk