The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1904-11-29

John F. Bass, who has had charge
of the Chicago Daily News syndicate
during the Russian-Japanese war, is
returning from the front after probably
the most successful career of any of
the correspondents during the present
war. 1t was Bass who first published
the details of the terrible battle of Lii
aoyang. He witnessed this entire bat
tie, but he had to disregard orders to
do so. Bass accompanied by his wife
and child is a through passenger on the
S. S. Siberia for San Francisco. He en-
tertains the highest opinion of General
Kuropatkin as a general and he has
the greatest admiration for the Japan
ese army.
Il was attached" said Bass, "to the
Imperial Guards division of the first
army under command of General Ku-
roki, and was with that army for six
months from the battle of the Yalu
until after the battle Liaoyang. AS
the result of the battle of the Yalu, the
Russian army was demoralized. Their
line officers were miserable and the am
munition except for the field guns, was
bad. There was no unity of action by
the Russians, no tactical movements
during that fight. One of the Russian
prisoners told me that the army was
completely destroyed The number of
Russians engaged in that fight was
much less than that officially given out
by the Russian war department. The
Russians had the system of the officers
drawing the pay of the men. The re-
suit was that the onS'ers would retain
about half of the pay. This would re-
suit in the regiments being greatly de-
pleted. The officers would, of course,
be afraid to make any official return of
the actual numbers engaged, but would
have to let it appear that the number
of men on paper in the war department
were actually present on the field.
"On the contrary the Japanese arr7y
was splendidly organized. The Japan
ese idea of honor is loyalty to his chief.
The old feudal system under which
they formerly lived serves to increase
the effectiveness of the army The SOL
dier looks up to his officer and will do
as he is told. The Japanese line Off
GERS are a magnificent set of men. They
are students of the art of war and are
not bound down by any rigid set of
rules. They change their form of at
tack according to the character of
ground in front of them and the men
they have to attack. The line officer
knows his business in every respect
The Japanese artillery was inferior in
range to that of the Russians, but was
so much better served as to more than
equalize any discrepancy in the matter
of range. The Japanese would move
the artillery up at night into position,
so that the Russians were constantly
kept in ignorance of the positions or
plans of their enemy. The Japanese
artillery would be well advanced in po-
sitions that would compensate for the
lack of range.
1T is my belief and the belief of 9TH
ers attached 10 the Japanese army that
the Japanese let slip their opportunity
after the battle of the Yalu river. The
Russian forces were undoubtedly COM
pletely demoralized and had Kurokrs
army been reinforced and pushed along
northward into Manchuria, smashing
the Russians constantly, the Russians
would have been forced to either suffer
annihilation or else retreat northward
as far as Kurok would drive thSm,
They could have offered no effective re-
sistance to the japanese advance. But
the japanese plans had been carefully
mapped out andwere for Kurok / to ad-
vance from the Yalu and two other ar
mics under Oku and Nodzu to advance
O%NA@AAANA@&@%@ y
sore throat may be quickly cured
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For sale by all dealers, Benson Smith &
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