Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1904-04-01

There appears to have been little real
fighting during the last week. The nu-
merous alleged bombardments of Port
Arthur can all be boiled down into one
single attack. This bombardment was
served up fresh by the refugees arriving
at Yingow, Newchwang, Tien- tsin, Che
foo and Shanghai to the correspondents
in those towns. And the correspondents,
thinking they had new stories, promptly
cabled the refugee tales home. SO the
story kept drifting in all through the
week.
1t has become evident that, all reports
to the contrary Notwithstanding, the
Japanese battleship squadron is quite
intact up to date. A Mukden CORE
spondent Of a French paper visited Fort
Arthur and was there Informed that ac-
cording to Russian advices the enemy>s
squadron was reduced to the battleshlps
Shikishima, Yakima, Mikasa, Asahi,
the Matsuse, which must mean the Hat
suse, and the Fudashi, which must mean
the Full. These six battleships are all
that the Mikado has ever had.
The dash Of the Port Arthur squadron
to unite with the Vladiyostok cruisers
came to nothing. The ships crept out
at night but soon encountered the Jap
ancse scouts and returned On Tuesday
the Russian squadron, with the aid of
ice-breakers and dynamite, forced it's
way out of frozen Vladivostok harbor,
and afterward was reported at rest in
Possiet bay, about ninety miles to the
south.
A Toxic paper which has hitherto re-
ceiyed a great deal of accurate advance
information about military movements
printed a statement that a japanese
army division had crossed the Tumen
river between Hyeisan and Musan. If
this news be true it is likely that the
divisions objective is Vladivostok.
Hyeisan and Musan (they are marked
only on the larger maps lie on the boun-
dairy between Korea and Manchuria. The
two towns are about $50 miles apart by
road. Hyeisan may be found on large
| maps by taking a line from Kiljb slight
| ~ north of due west. Where this line
| intersects the boundary is Hyeisan. Mu-
| san lies to the northeast about 100 miles
| as the crow flies or due west of Du-
| kuga. On the Manchurian side Of the
river there is fairly fat country between
| Hyeisan and Musan. TO the northeast
that is, in the direction Of Vladivostok
the fiat country continues. 10 the
| southwest-that is, in the direction Of
| the mouth Of the Yalu and the Seoul
| Pekin road along which another Jap
anese army is known to be operating
the fat country is broken by a series
| of precipitate mountain ranges. In 9TH
er words, it would be exceedingly diff
cult for an army in the position describ-
| ed by the Toxic paper to move south
westward toward the mouth of the Yalu
or the Liaotung peninsula, whereas it
would be comparatively easy, so far as
| the confguration of the ground goes, for
such an army to march northeast, toward
| Vladivostok.
| The inference is strong that if the di-
| vision has crossed the Tumen river, as
| reported, its objective will be that town.
That will give two or perhaps three dis
tinct campaigns. One will be against
! Vladivostok. Another will be against
the Russian forces near Wiju, at the
mouth of the Yalu. A third may be
made by an expeditionary army debark-
ing from ships behind Port Arthur and
raking that place in the rear. 1t is reck-
oned dangerous to divide forces too great
ly. Possibly the japanese fear three
fold division, and prefer to make their
| fight in two sections only. Ii such is
their intention it goes to explain why