The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-18
WAR JUST BEGUN.
And the Russian Ounce fs Fast De
 VelOping Into a Soldier.

And the Russian Ounce ts Fast De-
 veloping Into a soldier.
 F. A. Mckenzie, who has been the correspondent of The London Mail with Kurokfs army since February last, was a passenger on the steam CT Manchuria, which. reached port yesterday from the Orient. says the San Francisco Chronicle. He Is &C., companied by Mrs. Mckenzie, and during their stay in town they are guests at the Palace. MT. Mckenzie was with Kurokis army from the landing at Chemulpo. in February Aast, until the latter part of octo- Der. He saw the Japanese advance in Northern Corea. witnessed the battle of the Yalu, the battel Of Liaoyang and other engagements.
 "The thing that struck me most fore ibly all through the. campaign" he said last evening, twas the perfect or- ganization of the Japanese. whereas the Russians were lacking in all things in which they were thought strong except courage. They certainly have plenty of courage. The Japanese know every foot of Corea, having had men in the country for four, or six years who could not be distinguished from the Coreans.
 On the other hand. the Russians had no maps of Corea. They mad to make their maps on the ground. Neither did they have any conmis- ary arrangements. They brought heavy. numbering wagons in from Manchuria. and endeavored to feed on the country. The Russians did not seem to know their own minds. One day they would purposely advance, and the next day. for no reason at all. they would purposely retreat. While in Northern Corea General Mistchenko received advices from headquarters at eHarbin one day critieising him for not taking a more aggressive hand. To satisfy the people at headquarters, he went out and waged a battle the next day. A considerable number of men were killed, but the fight accom- plished nothing. and meant nothing. The situation is changing nowy however. The Russians have been learning as hard as they can, and to- day the Russians. as a fighting force, are very diherent from what they were six months ago. This fact fore es a person who has been viewing the situation from close range to form the Iconclusion that this war has little more than begun. Great as have been the results of Japanese victories thus far. the conflict is only in its pre- liminary stages, unless, of course, the outside world interferes.
 NO man who has watched the cam paign has now any doubt but that the Japanese soldier is the finest con- script infahtryman in the world. He has brains, and knows how to use them. He does what everyone thought impossible, and does it as a matter of course. His discipline Is perfect, and there is no drunkenness and no ridiculous stories of footing at Liaoyang. of which there was prac- tically none. The Japanese officers lives on tea mainly. Many of the Russian officers seem to have been floating in champagne. But General Kuropatkin is putting a stop to this. Just before I left saw some of his dispatches and orders that had been captured at Liaoyang. Many Of them were directed against ,intemperance among oficers.s and military disorder generally. We saw a good deal of the Russian, wounded and as pris- oner. We Iearned to like him as an individual. but at the same time our wonder at his lack of brains in fight ing constantly grew"