The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-19
THE WAR SITUATION.

Admiral AleN1SfI announcement Iud
100000 men have been modified in
Manchuria between Port Arthur and
Hardin win probably not deceive the
Japanese as it seems intended to do.
1t is now pretty we'll known that the
Russian force in that neighborhood
when the the war began was not much
in excess of 100000 and that since then
the single track railroad covering dis
lance equal to that between Toronto
and Cape Horn, has been both broken
and congested. Under such circum-
stances the transportation of 13O'OOO
men and of supplies enough to feed
them and the 100000 already on the
ground could hardly have been effect
ed in five or six weeks. The weather,
the amount of rolling stock, the condi-
ton of the line and of the commits
sariat, the state of military prepara-
tion in Russia proper-aIl these things
must be summed up in the scheme OF
probabilities against the Viceroy's COM
putation.
1t is strategy, however, in case Ad-
u1iral Alexieff needs more time, to COM
pei the enemy TO take more time Could
he convince the Japanese that he has
2s0. 900 men in hand and more coming,
their own preparations would have to
be prolonged. But it is likely that the
Japanese know as much about the
strength of the Russian forces as their
commander does. Their spy system
is so perfect that it extends into the
Russian official family; it peryades the
rank and file and has widely spread |
among men of Nihilist proclivities. |
Moreover Manchuria is full of long
uueued Japanese disguised as Chinese
Little that goes on in the sphere OF
Russian action in Korea long remains
unknown in Toxic. So if there are not
2sO, 900 troops in Manchuria, Admiral
Alexieff cannot make the Japanese
think so.
OF actual war news there is very lit
tie but this does not necessarily imply
the absence of events. 1t is the ap-
parent policy of Japan to permit the
publication of no news stories which
are at all coincident in time with the
war occurrences described. But few
correspondents have reached the army
in Korea and these are not at the front; !,
indeed. they have been sent far to the
rear. An English officer lately arriv-
ing at Vancouver says the correspond :
ss;- 1zoSDair which is unite |
likely. And their despair will prob
ably be intensified if they expect to be
able to put fresh stories on the cable
or to send anything in the nature OF r
forecasts. In the former war with T
China uncertainty prevailed for week C
in japan itself as to whether the news L
of the report of the capture of Port a
Arthur was true; and the full account Y
of the event was withheld from the {
American papers for five weeks. The I
then exercised has since C
been increased.
An amusing sidelight upon the a
bumptiousness of the Russian generals t
is afforded by an interview with Kuro- c
patkln in which that oIlcer says that
latter crushing the japanese in Korea t
and Manchuria, We will take their 9
islands" For the representative of a h
power, the navy of which has been o
crushed and which could not put II
transport on the sea between Japan Z
and the mainland and give it protec-
ton, such a statement is at least I'M Il
expected 1t has been doubted by ex-
perts that even the British could land =
an army in Japan, so splendidly fortt-
fed and defended are all it's harbors ,
and vantage grounds. Even if Kuro-
patkin killed every Japanese in Korea
sr Manchuria there would still remain
4 triumphant Japanese navy and y
Territorial army, capable of indefinite
expansion. to defend the coasts. ia
pan is, in it's location as well as it's :.
defensive arrangements, considered the
most impregnable country in the world. J.