The San Francisco call., 1904-06-07
JAPANESE SUFFER HEAVILY IN COMBAT
WITH COSSACK FORCE NEAR WAFENGKAU
JAPAN NO LONGER
FEARS THE PRIDE
OF RUSSIAN ARMY
Mikado's Men Have Found
a Way Of Combating
With CoSsackS.

M. Shiraishi of Toxic, general man
ager of the Togo Kisen Kaisha Steam
ship Company, whose vessels were ap-
propriated by the Mikado for service
as auxiliary cruisers in the Japanese
navy, arrived here Yesterday by way
of Victoria and is registered at the St
Francis. He is on his way to Wash
ingtOn on business concerning the re-
sumption of the service of his company
between Japan and this port. He was
met in Portland by William H. Avery,
general agent of the company in this
country, who accompanied him to this
city, where he expects to remain for
several days looking into matters per-
tanning to Pacific Ocean traffic. Re
garding the probability of the Togo
Kisen Kaisha resuming service on the
Pacific, Shiraishi said last evening that
he expected that the Government
would soon release all the steamers it
had taken, numbering in all about ten,
which formerly piled between Yoko-
hama and San Francisco and Victoria.
When l left Japan" said he, "the
Government had already released sew
eral of the trans Pacific steamers, upon
which the owners were hurrying the
work of reconstruction with a view of
getting them back into the regular
runs across the ocean. The release of
these vessels depends much on the
progress of events before Port Ar
thur"
The fall of Port Arthur was certain,
he said, and when asked when he eX-
pected the japanese to occupy the Rus
sian forts he replied with a smile,
You may look for it very soon"
Realizing that there is little need for
the steamers recently appropriated, the
Government is releasing the vessels as
fast as it can spare them, and Shlr-
atshi predicted that il would not be
many weeks before the Toyo Kisen
Kaisha line would be bidding again
for American business. Referring to
the recent events of the war and par
ticularly to the achievements of the
Japanese land forces, especially in con-
flict with the Cossacks, Shiraishi re-
marked that the precision of fire from
the Japanese side had dispelled the ira
ditional idea that the Russian Cossack
was invincible.
Several years before the war he said,
Japan had sent its agents into Russia
for the sole purpose of studying vari-
Gus methods for combating with the
Cossacks in the event of war. for il
was generally believed that the most
dangerous arm of the Russian military
service would be these mounted men.
Many reports, devislng ways and
means for making the Cossack attacks
on Japanese infantry nugatory, were
submitted by the japanese agents to
the Toxic authorities and eventually
resulted in the adoption of a small
quickfiring machine gun, with a range
of 1000 yards and light enough to be
easily carried on the back of a small
Japanese pony.
With this gun goes a small tripod. 1t
takes less than a minute for a battery
of four men to remove the gun from a
pony and fix ii in position for action
on the tripod 1t can be swiveled in
any direction and while in action it's
zone is untenable for anything living.
For months Japan schooied its in
fantry and artillery in the use of this
gum" continued Shiraishi. "and to the
accuracy of the men who have re-
Gently handled them may be attributed
much of the success of the victories
over the Cossacks. Japan no longer
fears the pride of the Russian soldiery
and the world will soon realize this fact
when its news gatherers have told
EN- of the deadly effect of the little
machine gun. The minute band of
Ccssacks are sighted by the Japanese
forces off comes the gun from. the
pony and few minutes later the rapid
fire of the weapon unds the death
knell of the Cars famous riders. To
this gun may be attributed the small
number of casualties among the Jap
anese, '-N0 have already met the Co.'S
sacks, for, as already explained, few
live to tell of their experiences within
the zone of the death dealing ma
chine"