The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-05
DESPERATE FIGHTING
 BEFORE PORT ARTHUR
JAPANESE COMPELLED TO RE
 LINoUISH LAST ASSAULT.

Russian Consul at cheefoo Reports to
 His Government That the MiiSndo's
 Troops Were Compelled to Abandon
 the Attack After Losing Enormously
 No Confrmation of Report That
 General StoesseI Is wounded.
 St. Petersburg, Nov. 5.-2:4O a. m.- Great relief Is felt here in view of the reports indicating that the Japanese assaults on Port Arthur have been liil- successful A direct report from the Russian consul at Chefoo says he has received information from Chinese sources that the Japanese finally relin- quished the attempt on November 3, the Mikado's birthday. after losing enormously. The consul says the car mage was awful. The bombardment continued six days without intermis- sion. The Japanese preached and took fort No. 5, but according to the Chinese, were forced to abandon it owing to the concentrated fire from the sup porting fortifications.
 No confirmation has been received here of the report that General Stoes- sel was wounded.
 Among high officers at the war office, where the true conditions inside the fortress of Port Arthur are known, General Stoessel's ability to hold out against the efforts the Japanese con- centrated upon it during the last ten days is regarded as marvellous, but no confidence in the ultimate result is en- tertained. Ofiicials have been quite prepared to hear that the fortress had fallen.
 London, Nov. 5.The Daily Malls Chefoo correspondent has obtained a letter from Russian in Port Arthur. dated October 27 in which the writer declares that 1t would need the pen of a zola or the brush of a Verestchagin to picture the awfulness of the siege.
 The letter continues: The uneanny part of 1t all is that men meet death in lutter silence. One sees the fiercest of fights but hears no sound. One moon E light night at Etse mountain I watched an assault of a ghostly mass of moving l figures, through which continual lanes were made by our guns, admitting glimpses of scenes behind. These gaps were closed up as if by magic, and the masses surged onward while our men. forsaking the trenches, sought the shelter of the forts. On. they came until, when they were close up to us, the mines exploded and the earth open- cd. Bodies were hurled high in the air l and then sank again to earth. Hands clutched rifles, and in the moonlight the bayonets looked like fireworks shooting upwards and ascending point 1 downwards into the bodies of men, I idream of the sight even now. l All the inventions of military gen. jus are not able to daunt the Japnese, who fight with Titanic energy. Our soldiers are gladiators and great-heart- ed heroes.
 The last sortie of the fleet failed be- cause of the inability to repair yes sels previously damaged.
 We have not a single bottle of ar- aesthetics left. Just think what agony the wounded must endure. The food l is of the coarsest and even that is be- coming scarce, while disease is rife and tsanitary conditions are deplorable. It is impossible to repair the ships with ou tscant resources, but we are all de- ternlined to hold out. come what will, \ in the hope of relief. For every man I've lose our foes bemoan the loss of a hundred. <
 London, Nov, 5.-C Conflicting reports I emanate from Chefoo regarding the re- I suit of the latest assault on Port Ar thur. Bennett Burleigh, of the Satur- l day Telegraph, who passed the fortress 5I in a steamer, says that all was quiet at I 6 o'clock Friday morning and that there was no sign of firing or of any move- ment. His steamer was thrice chased
 and boarded by Japanese within brief I period, the Japanese forbidding any navigation within twenty miles of Port 5I Arthur
 The Daily Telegraph's correspondent at Chefoo learns that the Japanese are
 seeking to compel the Russian fleet to 1 quit the harbor and that Vice. Admiral Togo is prepared for this move If 1t is effected, the correspondent adds, the
 Japanese will settle down to a winters 5E siege.