Courier Democrat., 1904-08-04
ANXIETY IN RUSSIA
PUBLIC BELIEVES DECISIVE BAT.
TIE OF THE CAMPAIGN Is
BEING FOUGHT.

Ot. petersburg, Aug. 1.-The great
est anxiety prevails here for news Of
tile general advance against the
southern and eastern portions Of Gen.
4fal Kuropatkin's army. The public
Believes that the decisive battle of the
fphpaign is being fought, but this has
lot been established. In fact the
military attaches in st. Petersburg
&Stm that for several days the main
46dy Of the Russian army has been
89vipg northward toward Mukden
"a that when the present line to the
ptheast Is forced the Japanese will
6d that they have crushed only the
l&4u Should this prove to be so,
G4neral Kuropatkin will doubtless be
obliged to destroy the immense guam
0ty of stores now at Liaoyang.
Other military authorities, however,
lp not believe General Kuropa1kin can
7feape a general engagement. His
8@y forms wedge which General
Hku Is kammertng away at the edge
t&A Generals Ncdzu and kuroki are
&4W1ng with great force against the
4de. If one of the latter should
Weak through. the southern force
yQpld be doomed.
1.-The general staff seems amazed at
8e immense strength of the co-operat-
@g japanese armies The japanese
4Eiaently have succeeded in conceal.
HE the real number Of their men and
Ghs,; which The general staff now be-
4eves must be In excess of 100000
&en, with between 800 and 400 guns.
While General oku is holding the
Russian army at Hstc4eng in check,
46neral Nodzu is eTjdehtiy trying to
Work around the vital position at ST.
mouchelg. At the same time Gen.
sral Kuroki is trying to flank the
First Siberian army corps, which was
4oMawanded By the late General Count
keller, at Yanzalip. on the main
Fengwangcheng road and is also
marching strong column through di-
rect to Liaoyang on the Saimetz road.
Would Entrap Siberian Army Corps.
There is road leading north from
moucheng which strikes the main
Iengwangcheng road west of Yanza-
I'm. II Simoucheng should be forced
9 rapid advance along this road would
socket the First Siberian army corps.
The report received from Toxic late
Monday night that Simoucheng had
actually been forced did not become
Generally known.
Lacking definite information, and
+ the Russian formation has not
been broken by the capture of Simou-
eheng, the authorities here say that
II Kuropatkin accepts a general en-
gagement they believe it will occur
near Anschantschan. half way be.
tween Haicheng and Liaoyang. in
which case Haicheng force will fall
Back thither, and the Simoucheng
force under Mistchenko on the north
ward road to Yanzalin, which is al
ready fortified with view to such a
SSptingency. 1t is possible that il
6tfhoucheng is evacuated it may be in
pursuance Of the above plan, and it is
70 possible in this case that General
4takelberg may get away north, but
10 any case his retreat with Oku
hanging to his rear must be a diff
cult operation, even with the railway
70 help him.
General Kuropatkin's latest reports
ealy carry the fighting up to Sunday
4sht. when the Russians had been
nrivta in from the left flank of the
imoucheQg position. The Russians
mad repelled several attacks and one
hayunet charge In which there was
eeeperete hand to hand fighting at
KaEgwa heights. Elsewhere the Rus.
1tans are reported to be holding their
own. No figures of the two days
4ghting are given.