The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1904-11-10
TROOPS STARVING
Port Arthur's Garrison Suf-
fering All the Horrors
of War.
STOESSEL ASKS ARMISTICE
Fears Entertained That a
Massacre May Follow
Japanese Seizure.


sci, it is said, realizes that his
fight is hopeless, and that the longer that
he holds out against what will be inev-
table defeat in short time, the more
lives he must sacrifice and the greater
will be the suffering of his troops. He
has asked the Japanese for an armdstice.
according to a dispatch received here
from Toxic, dated 1915 A. NJ. today.
While this dispatch comes from Jep-
anese sources it is credited and it is
believed that while the proposition lis be-
ing considered there will be cessation in
hostigities.
The belief here is that Cen Stoesse4
will be permitted TO capitulate before the
city is takem The Japanese lose thou-
sands of men in every determined assault
on the city, and the handful of starving
Russians who are holdiug them off will
fight to the death, If it be so ordered by
their commander.
The feeling between the Russians and
japanese at Port Arthur is 50 bitter that
surrender on the part Of the Russians
would result in almost certain massacre
Of every man in the Russian army The
japanese base their bitterness on the al
legged inhuman treatment of prisoners
taken by the Russians. There is no proof
that Japanese prisoners have been treat
ed cruelty by the Russians, yet the be-
siegers prefer to believe stories which
have been brought to them from unreli-
able sources, and they are eager to kill
every man who has so CALAMITY defended
the fortress against their assaults.
This condition is appreciated by the
Japanese officers about Port Arthur, and
it is thought that they will listen to the
plan of armistice and permit Gen. Stoes-
sell to march off with his starving and
ragged army.
Should the Russians capitulate they
will be forced to leave thousands Of their
wounded and sick in the underground
huts and hospitals in Port Arthur unless
the armistice will permit their removal
by ship from the harbor. 1t is suggested
-t
here that this will be permitted by the
Japanese, who have wounded and sick of
their own to care for and will gladly give
up the care of the enemy's disabled.
Gen. Stoessel's offer follows despatch
received here today that the shells hurled
into the already wrecked city of Port
Arthur are killing women and non-com-
batants. These women are mostly the
wives, the mothers, the sweethearts and
the sisters Of Russian soldiers, and the
on-combatants are Red Cross nurses, all
of whom are staying in the doomed for
tress to render aid to the wounded, sick
and dying.
These brave nurses are under the lead
ership Of Mrs. Stoessel, who some weeks
announced that should Port Arthur be
the tomb Of her husband that it would
be her tomb also
So lnany wounded are in Port Arthur
~ Il. 1n,v7;,,t 4e :, 5;e,,s,it ,l, e,..,, Dor,
nett Burleigh, MANY of them are without
attention They are Fying within the
forts suffering great agony, hungry and
dying, but they are accompanying.
The troops and nurses have almost
nothing fo eat. The daily allowance is
only two pounds of black bread, and the
water is polluted. The troops are de
scribed as being mem of skin and bones,
and their clothes are so worn that they
give almost no protection from the biting
cold. Many of the men are without shoes
or foot covering of any kind. Others have
their feet wrapped in rags. The same
condition that applies to the men applies
ito the women, for they have stuck to the
fortress.
Almost no effort is being made to bury
the dead, who lie about in heaps inside
and out of the fortress. The Japanese
bury their dead when the bodies can be.
reached ont Of the range of Russian guns,
but many Of the Japanese dead lie under
the walls Of the forts, and these have
been left to freeze stripped of every