The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-03-18
SAYS JAPS ARE The
Equal OF NAPOLEON
a Military Expert in London
Writes Of Their Opera
tions on Land.
rs LIKE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
World Is Now in the Presence of tn.
Greatest Leadership Since the
Day of the Famous Bona
parte.
as LIKE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

London, March 14.-'"The more one
considers the silence. secrecy and sud
denneSs of the Japanese stroke in these
days Of telegraphs and of correspond
ents eagerly watching for news, the
calm, steady preparation and then the
almost incredibly rapid development,
the more 1t seems as IL We were in the
presence of an event with which there
has been nothing to compare since Ma
.poleon staggered Europe by appearing
on the plains of Italy, descending from
the Alps as from the, clouds, and shat
terlng the whole framework of Aus
trian power in Italy"
mus writes the military critic Of the
an officer of high rank and
standing in the British army. 1t is his
conclusion of a discussion of the re
series of movements. by which
the have been elbowing the
russians out of Korea and southern
Manchuria.
Vi-tory of<the Tactician.
% He poii->S out that it has been the
victory OF the tactician, not OF the field
marshall; of the general who
his enemy out Of positions by making
them, one after another, llogica and
untenable. There has been nothing
spectacular for the enjoyment of the
outsider; no battles nave been fought,
no splendid charges have been neces-
sary, none of the .pomp and panoply
and bloodshed which people associate
with the heroism, of the battlefield have
been exhibited. Yet the Japanese have
conducted and steadily won one of the
most remarkable campaigns in a cen
tury.
In opening the land campaign" con-
tlnues this authority, the Japanese
bettered the expectations Of their great
est friends. The boosted Russian de-
lenses on the Yalu have, collapsed COM
pletely without serious fighting before
the Japanese Whether the
Russian defensive positions at Antung
and VITA We're or We're not purely
mythical. we do not know as yet.
Uncertainties of the Situation.
1t may be that they We're turned
hlgher up the river by a force crossing
the river on the ice, and that when the
Russians found there was already an
army threatening their rear. they aban-
doneu them. In any case, Feng-huang-
cheng, which the Japanese have cap
tured, is ON the direct Peking road,
Whieh passes through Antung, and
Whlch is fifty miles in the rear of it.
The whole situation is pulling. We
Go not know in what strength the Jap
anese have advanced, nor whether part
or their force came by that road and
part of it from the side of Broughton
bay and Port I.azaretf.
line position said to be taken up
by $4,000 men attributed to the Rus
sian army at Hai-Cheng and Lao Yang
must De designed to defend the con-
hectlon or the railway between Mukden
ana Port Arthur and N~iu-chuang. In
the lace OF an immensely superior
army, such as the Japanese will be able
10 oppose to it, this looks like a hope
less m~lsconception Of the situation.
Inc two places are fifty miles apart. A
force or $4,000 men could not hold both
81 lhein and preserve the connection
between them.
New Chwang Is LOST.
IN any case, it is clear that the
RUSSIAN force in these two places wifi
not be able to prevent the japanese
from Selling the port of New Chwang
from the land side, and so throwing it
open TO their fleet, While, with the
Japanese in force seventy miles east
OF New Chwang. AS it is said to be, the
whole OF the Lao Tung peninsula lies
open to them. and the railway to Port
Arthur shortly will be in their hands.
THE broad effect of the
so far is n.anifestly that the whole OF
the seaboard from New Chwang right
around he whole coast of the Lac
Iung peninsula, with the exception Of
Port Arthur. the Liao Tung gulf.
Korea bay and Korea, to and beyond
.Broughton bay, is in the hands of the
Japanese as completely as the sea was
AT the first stroke OF the navy.
1t is Il strange, marvellous collapse
of the Russian power on land, and
offers facilities for future operations
on land such as the greatest admirers
of Japan could not nave imagined
would be by this time in their hands.
That the $4,000 men at Lilac Tung and
Hal Cheng will be able either to pre-
vent the Japanese from Selling the
railway 10 Mukden or capturing Muk-
den. is inconceivable. They will be
Fortunate If theV aScana from, Haiou
cut off and forced to capitulate. That
the Japanese will be content to rest
or their success 1 do not believe for a
monaent."