The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-03-18
SAYS JAPS ARE The
EQUAL OF NAPOLEON
a Military Expert in London
Writes of Their Opera
tions on Land.
as LIKE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
World Is Now in the Presence of tn.
Greatest Leadership Since the
Day of the Famous Bona
parte.
as LIKE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

London, March lathe more one
considers the silence, secrecy ana sud-
denneSS OF the Japanese stroke in these
lays OF telegraphs and of correspond
ents eagerly watching for news, the
calm steady preparation and Their the
almost incredibly rapid development,
the more it seems as IL We were in he
presence of an event with which there
has been nothing to compare since Ma
.poleon staggered Europe by appearing
on the plains Of Italy, descending from
the Alps as from the clouds, and shat
terlng the whole framework of Aus
trlan power in Italy"
mus writes the military critic Of the
Telegraph, an officer of high rank and
standing in the British army. 1t is his
CONCLUSION of a discussion of the re-
markable series of movements. by which
The japanese have been elbowing the
russians U of Korea and southern
Manchuria.
V'-tory ofthe Tactician.
% lie poli->s out that it has been the
victory Of the tactician, no of he field
marshal; OF the general who .maneuVers
mas enemy ont Of positions by making
them, one after another, illogical and
untenable. There has been nothing
spectacular for the enjoyment of the
outsider; no battles have been ought,
no splendid charges have been neces-
sary' none of the .pomp n panoply
n bloodshed which people associate
with the heroism of the battlefield have
been exhibited. Yet the Japanese have
and steadily Won one of the
most remarkable campaigns in a cen
tury.
In opening the and campaign" con-
ttlnues this authority, the Japanese
bettered the expectations OF their great
est friends. The boosted Russian de-
lenses on the Yalu have, collapsed com
pletelY without serious fighting before
the japanese advances. Whether the
Russian defensive positions at Antung
and Win We're or We're not purely
mythical, We do not know as yet.
Uncertainties of the Situation,
1T may be that they We're turned
-hlgher up the river by a force crossing
me river on the ice, and that when the
Russians found there was already an
army threatening their rear, they aban-
uoneu them. In n case, Feng-huang-
cheng, which the Japanese have cap
tured. is on the direct Pcking road,
which passes through Antung, and
which is fifty miles in the rear of it.
The whole situation is pulling. We
40 not know in strength the jap
anese have advanced, nor whether part
CT their force came by that road and
part of it from the side of Broughton
bay and Port I.azareff.
Inc position said to be taken up
by $4,000 men attributed to the Rus
sian army at Hal-Cheng and Lao Yang
must be designed to defend the con-
nectlon of the railway between Mukden
n Fort Arthur and Niu-chuang. In
me race of an immensely superior
army, such as the Japanese will be able
70 oppose to it, this looks like a hope
less mlsconception of the situation.
Inc TWO places are fifty miles apart. A
1Orrp Of z nm MAJ, a-,,1 81 l-,1 ,.4l-
or lhem and preserve the connection
between them.
New Chwang Is Lost.
In any case, it IS clear that the
RUSSIAN force in these two places Will
not De able to prevent the Japanese
from Selling the port of New Chwang
from the land side, and so throwing it
open to their fleet, while, with the
Japanese in force seventy miles east
OF New Chwang, as it is said to be. the
whole OF the Lao Tung peninsula lies
'open to them. and the railway to Port
Arthur shortly will be in their hands.
The broad effect of the campaign
SO Tar is n.anifestlY that the whole Of
the seaboard from New Chwang right
around the whole coast of the Liza
lung peninsula, with the exception of
Port Arthur, the Liza Tung gulf,
Korea bay and Korea, to and beyond
l3roughton bay, is in the hands of the
Japanese as completely as the sea was
at the first stroke of the navy.
1T is q strange, marvellous ~collapse
of the Russian power on land, and
offers facilities for future operations
on land such as the greatest admirers
of Japan could not have imagined
would be by this time in their hands.
That the $4,000 men at Lao Tung and
Hal Cheng will be able either to pre-
vent the Japanese from Selling the
railway 10 Mukden or capturing Muk-
den, is inconceivable. They will be
fortunate if they escape from being
cut off and forced to capitulate. That
the Japanese will be content to rest
or their success l do not believe for a
mOmenl."