The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-08-20
GENERAL KUROPATKIN
DULLED TO WAR NEWS
BUT TRUSTS IN PROVIDENCE

ST. PETERSBURG. July 1.-THE at
titude of the capital to the war was set
in sharp relief last Wednesday after
noon when the Government gave the
authority of the Official Messenger to
viceroy Alexieffs telegram that he had
it from native sources that the Jap
anese had lost 10000 men in night as
sault on the earthworks north of Port
Arthur
The fly sheets with the news had a
considerable sale. In the Nevski Pros
pekt, or the heart of the business cen
ter, about one man in a dozen bought
a copy, which is evidence of unusual
interest for ST. Petersburg. But it was
the nature of the interest displayed that
was the extraordinary features of the
afternoon. In the cafes and under the
colonnades acquaintance gathered to
discuss the telegram. In some groups
there was real animation, but in none
the slightest approach to cheering or
even jubilant handshaking.
What all their talk turned on was the
motive for the Government in issuing
the telegram AS far as an observer
could tell there was not one who was
content to believe the news and rejoice
at a great victory. The message was,
in fact, a complete paradox in its eff
feet; for that same evening, with no
more official information to go upon,
people stopped each other with the
question, Have you heard that Port
Arthur is taken?'
There need have been nothing in the
size of the figures to make Russians in
credulous. They destroyed twice as
many Frenchmen at Borodino, and
themselves lost more in single attacks
upon Turkish trenches. But they have
turned their minds against accepting
such deeds in this chapter of their his
tory.
The Viceroys message had only one
use, and that was for testing anybody's
theory of why it was made public. The
view that found acceptance was that,
as it was preceded by a press telegram
in the morning to the same effect and
the date of the slaughter was several
days earlier, the public mind was being
prepared for the news of the fail of
Port Arthur. The Government, the
critics said, could maintain that it was
worth the price, that the fortress had
annihilated an army before it was lost.
The figures of great slaughter were CIV
en- a good start, in the hope that they
would outweigh the grief when the bad
news came.
Another Interpretation put on the
message was that the Japanese them
selves had circulated the report in the
hope of encouraging the Russians to
strike another blow toward the south.
Gen. Stakelberg was drawn down to
Wafangow in the belief that he could
do something for Port Arthur by re-
ports that the japanese had had very
heavy losses there. Just before the de-
feat at Kinchow the news was spread
abroad that the Japanese had lost $4,000
men in trying to take the Russian hill
positions.
1t seemed part of japanese tactics to
spread bad news about themselves in
the hope of making their enemy over
anu LnSH SNOOpllS uONA OI
him. The last theory canvassed around
is that the Emperor himself ordered
the telegram to be published, because
his advisers told him it would hell
mobilization. The one simple explana-
ton that no one apparently will accept
| is that the news of the great victory is
true.
And yet the unquestionable losses il
ships and men among the Japanese, and
even more the weeks passing by with
out their establishing an irretrievablt
| advantage, have given comfort to tbs
| Russians. But it is not at all the kinC
of joy that goes with glorious victories
Those whom hunger does not prevent
| from mental reveries accept all tht
| events of the war with a certain alb
stract detachment inclined mostly I,
see in them further proofs every da1
| that Providence is on RusSias side
proofs that Russia must finally vii
| whether she wish TO and try to. or not
| The widely read paper of the poore
kind of patriot, the Sviet, declares out
right that this is the difference between
Russian and japanese. He quotes witt
fervent approval the address of tn
Marshal of Nobility at Suinbirsk to tn
Emperor on his tour this week:
The heavy trials, said the Marshal
which we now undergo in the Orient
tcannot shake our faith in the strength