Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1905-03-23
SLAVS IN FLIGHT
JAPANESE IN FULL CONTROL OF
TIE PASS.
RUSSIAN ARMY IS IN RETREAT
The Movement is Now Toward Hardin
The Muscovites Have Been Slight
ly Reinforced, but There is Little
Hope of Their Escape.

TOKIO-The Japanese occupied Tie
Pass at midnight. March Is. Details of
| the occupation have not yet been re-
ceived at imperial army headquarters.
An official bulletin reports the action
and that the japanese are in hot pur-
suit of the retreating Russians. but il
does not mention any particulars about
the fight.
The Japanese captured many prison
ers at Tie Pass and the Russians de.
| stroyed vast stores.
General Kouropatkin and the rem
hants of the army which was defeated
by the Japanese on the Shakhe and
Hun rivers, and again around Mull-
den and Tie Pass. are now in the
mountains a few miles north of the
southern entrance of the Pass trying
to shake off their pursuers. who appar-
emily are not going to repeat the mis-
take of Lao Yang and allow the Rus
sian army to escape. Kouropatkin has
been reinforced by the garrisons of
Telling and other northern towns and
few. new troops who were on their
way from Russia when the battle of
Mukden began.
But even with these there is little
hope for him. True, he has some thirty
or forty miles of hilly country extend
ing from Tie Pass to Fenghuatsien,
which might enable him to hold off
the enemy for time, but once out of
the hills he has before him nearly 300
miles of fiat, Open country and innum-
cradle rivers and streams to cross.
This is what is termed the great val
ley of the Sungari but is in fact an
immense plain, bounded on the east
by high mountains and extending
northward into Siberia and westward
into Mongolia. Kirin, east of the rail
way and Hardin, the most northerly
point on the railway where it branches
off to Vladivostok eastward and to
Siberia westward are the centers of
this wonderfully rich country. resem-
bling in many respects the northwest
territories of Canada. From Tie Pass
the railway runs over a hill known as
the Divide of Kaiyan, twenty miles.
then striking into a valley. on either
side of which rise high hills, energies
onto the plain just northeast of the
important Chinese city of Fenghuat-
sien. From there to Hardin hardly
Till can be seen from the railway
train, the line running almost straight.
except where an occasional curve is
necessary to reach a city or favorable
crossing of a river. Beside the rail
way there is splendid wagon road
from Tie Pass to Kaiyan, where it
branches one branch making a detour
to the westward, skirting the noun
tains and running almost direct to
Hardin; the other branch passes
through the mountains to Kirin, from |
which center there are many roads. !
The distance from Tie Pass to Har- |
bin is very little less than 800 miles. |
and except for the first few miles |
every acre is under cultivation or sup
porting herds of cattle, sheep and
horses. So far as the { nmissariat is
concerned the Russians need have no
Tear. Hardly pound of last years
crop of beans, millet or wheat left
the country, the Russians buying it all.
out storing it in stations along the
galway, immense shelters being erect
ed for its reception. They also pur-
chased all the cattle and horses and
have Cossacks herding them