The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-06-07
the PORT ARTHUR CAMPAIGN.

The capture of the outer works of
Port Arthur does not mean that any
OF the main defences. close TO the city,
| have been taken. What are known as
the outer works extend a distance of
thirty miles from Port Arthur to Kin
chow and Dalny, and consist of re-
doubts. more or less heavily armed,
browning the tallest hilltops and sup
| porting each other. Nanshan, near
| kinchow, commanded that walled town
| from one side and a Dalny fortificati,l
built by the Chinese and possibly dis
| mantled during the war of iS94-95, from
another. Behind Nanshan, in the di-
rection of Port Arthur, are more re-
doubts and these have fallen into the
hands of the Japanese without bringing
the latter. however, within siege-gun
range of the main fortress. quite like
ly General Oku will push his advan-
tage and in short time, plant his
| heavy artillery where 1t can send mis-
siles into the central works.
The Port Arthur garrison will then be
in desperate plight; for with the guns
of the enemys fleet at work in the
ofiing and those of the eneiuys laid
forces at work in the back olntry,
there, will be no safe place outside the
bombproofs. Shells should be able so
small is Port Arthur-to reach every
part of it's surface area. The only re-
lief from them will be in the raising of
the siege by Russian relief force or in
successful sortie, neither of which Is
feared by the Japanese, whose numbers
and supplies are being steadily aug
mented.
1t seems probable that the reduction
of Port Arthur will be accomplished by
a siege. The main forts there are
among the strongest in the world and
to carry them by assault, If that were
possible, would entail an enormous loss
of life A siege, under all the circum-
stances, need not necessarily be long;
for when an army is cooped up in
small space, subjected to the nerve
racking experience of bombardment
and living on canned goods, sickness,
disbursement and surrender follow in
rapid course. Most accounts agree that
the Russian garrison is not well pro-
visioned; and the stories told by refugee
foreigners from Port Arthur about the
damage done by the shells of Togo's
fleet, prove how open Port Arthur is
to such attack and how expert the
Japanese have become in high-angle
firing.
Meanwhile the tactics of the Russians
in the north of Liaotong are the old
ones of retreat. Kuropatkin has asked
for reenforcements and is going to meet
them in the expectation, when his army
is made large enough, of advancing
south in overwhelming force. He does
not seem to have at his disposal, out
side of Port Arthur and Vladivostok,
not including the railway guards, more
than 100000 men. He talks as if he ex-
pected half a million; but it must be
remembered that he will get no more
men than the railway and the Hardin
mills can feed. The food capacity of
the line Will serve about 100000 and
Hardin, with its flour mills, may pro-
vide for $4,000 more. But Japan, if she
sends her depot troops to the mainland
f1lling their places at home with the
veteran reserves can place 40O,0 900 men
at the threatened points and keep them
well-supplied with ammunition and
food. Back of them are at least sc, 900
drilled Chinese troops who are eager to
aid the Japanese and who may be called
on to attack the Russians on the flank:
and In the event of an open alliance,
the surplus food resources of China will
be at the disposal of the japanese field
commissarat.
1t is impossible at this juncture and
under all the circumstances, to see how
Russia can hope to win. Unless the I'M
expected happens in the way of land
victories, we shall soon see Russia in
the market for allies, seeking by the
bugaboo of the Yellow Peril to get the
active support, as she did in 1895, of
Germany and France. But as Germany
and France well know, the international
situation has changed. England must
be reckoned with and ii is within the
power of England if she goes to war,
to seize every Asiatic port at which
French and German warships could
coal, thus protecting Japan from an
assault on her sea-power. On land the
question of reenforcements, domestic or
foreign, is controlled by the food-car-
rying capacity of the single-track rail-
road.