Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-07-20
JAPSAT I'ATCHEKIAO
Engagement With General
 Count Keller's Forces.
BRITAIN HOUSED BY SHIP SEIZURES
English Government Expected to Take Immediate Action Against the Course of Russian yes-
 sells En the Red Sea.


 sells En the Red Sea.
 LONDON, July 2o.-A Liaoyang re port says that general engagement is reported between the forces of Lieu. tenant General Count Keller and Gen eral Kuroki. It is reported also that an engagement began simultaneously at Tatchekiao from which the Japa- nese for some days had been only six miles distant.
 The Fengwangcheng road, which is in the height of military activity, is of fensive with the odor of dead animals.
 The large Red Cross hospital at Ia tchekiao was removed to Mukden in anticipation of the lighting. Conse- quently there is large call for Red Cross trains to proceed to Tatchekiao.
 The best information received here indicates that the siege of Port Arthur is now being much more closely press ed, and there are most extravagant ru- mors of losses on both sides.
 No foreign correspondent has yet witnessed even the simplest military operation, but the correspondents have been notified that they may go to Ta- tchekiao.
 A Tatchekiao report says that the Japanese seem to be moving their forces northeastward in the direction of Hiuyan and Simouchen. Fresh guns, mules and ammunition are being brought up daily and sent to points where the Japanese expect to give bat tie.
 The movement northeastward is con- siderably impeded by Russian attacks.
 At Siatziatun and Gaitziatun the Russian gunners shelled the Japanese camps and drove the troops out in dis order. Many were killed, and large supplies were abandoned.
 Another Japanese party was surpris- ed at Kaimahe and Tunchemalin while marching in the mountain defiles to join General Nodzu.
 A Suez special report says:
 "The German steamer Sambia has been seized by the Russians and Is ex- pected here today"
 A dispatch from Constantinople says:
 IA Russian cruiser has just passed through from Odessa with several guns covered with canvas on her deck. She also carried torpedo tubes"
 International complications, the pos sible demand by Japan for British CO., operation under the treaty of alliance and the likelihood of vigorous policy as to Russia's seizure of British ships in the Red sea were regarded here as sufficiently within range to cause a sharp decline in consols and other gilt edged securities.
 Some relief was afforded to public uneasiness when the foreign office au- thorized the statement that there was absolutely no truth in the story circu- lated In the United States by a news agency that Great Britain had inform ed Germany of the dispatch of Brit ish fleet to Alexandria with the in- tention of checking Russian illegalities in the Red sea.
 and overhauling of British ships in the Red sea by the Russian volunteer fleet steamers Smolensk and St. Petersburg are regarded as very grave internation- al incidents. The seizure of the Penin- sular and Oriental steamer Malacca by the St. Petersburg and her arrival in the Suez canal as a prize of war on her way to Libau on the Baltic, have come as a climax, and the cabinet has decided to take action.
 As result of the cabinet meeting a strongly worded dispatch has been drawn up, embodying the British gov ernments formal protest to Russia, and will immediately be forwarded to the czar by a kings messenger.
 The cabinet is moreover believed to have had an interchange of view with the admiralty and a programme of ac- tion in case of eventualities decided upon.
 Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle, in an interview, said
 Were I commander in chief of the Mediterranean at the present time I should take the law into my own hands. would order my ships to convoy British merchantmen through the Red sea and protect them from in- terference on the part of these Russian ships.
 "I hope the government will adopt strong measures in this matter. It is against all commop sense for ship to be merchant Vessel one day and a cruiser the next. If these ships passed through the Dardanelles under a mercantile flag they ought not to be recognized as warships, and if they came out of the Black sea as war ships Russia has violated the treaties governing the Dardanelies."
 It is considered in London that the situation created by what are called the Russian naval raids on neutral shipping is most serious and that the passage of the Dardanelles by the Russian volunteer fleet vessels may precipitate a crisis.