The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-04-15

Port Arthur Could Have
Held Gut Much
Longer.

"BIockaSIe-runners. loaded with sup
plies, ran into Port Arthur up TO four
weeks of the time that General Stoes-
sci capituIated. and. for that reason,
in my opinion General stoessel had no
good cause for surrendering Port Ar
thur"
So says ]. E. Kearney, at Cation &
Neilrs Iron works. who arrived here
last week from the Far East where
he spent the past eight months in the
bIockade-running business. Mr.. Kear-
ney is machinist by trade and was
blockade-runner by chance.
Il was on blockade-runner at sea
from September until December, when
1 switched off to do blockade running
on land. and was in Mukden up to two
days before it's capture by the Japs.
Il cannot tell you the name of the
steamship on which I was employed
as chief engineer, but the name of it
would be in the nature of a surprise
in the shipping world. 1t would also
surprise the world to learn that Jap
anese were engaged in the same class
of work as myself. 1t was a paying
business and everybody made money
I received 100 roubles per month, and
had opportunities to make a lot of
money on my own hook.
we ran from Chinese ports to Pige-
on Bay where we made arrangements
to slip by the japanese fleet, stretch
ed out in three cordons off Port Ar
thur. during the night time. We ran
without lights. of course, and by
prearranged signal. which 1 am not
al liberty TO divulge, we ran under the
guns protecting the mouth of the har-
Dor and passed in without being chal-
lenged by the Russians. The Japanese
had to keep away at a great distance
from the mouth of Port Arthur owing
to the danger believed to lie in float
ing mines. We were never fired on.
We chose misty nights for our work
I'VE anchored in the outer harbor
and landed our supplies. which con-
sisted of provisions, ammunition and
general merchandise. Port Arthur was
we'll provisioned throughout the siege
and the fortress had plenty of am
munition as well. General Stoessel
had 80, 600 men on duty, despite reports
to the contrary. He was a weak man.
and therefore surrendered when he did
not have to. / saw him quite often.
Most of the warships were in good
shape as far as 1 could learn, although
guns had been removed from some of
them to mount on land batteries. The
japanese had the range of the town
pretty well and dropped shells in
places where they did great damage.
Finally 1 quit the blockade-runners.
and went to Tien Tsin where I took
the railroad running up north into
Manchuria. The japanese had the
main line running between Port Ar
thur and Mukden. but there was an
other line far to the westward, con-
trolled by the Chinese. From the rail-
road we struck off across country and
came TO Mukden from the north and
west There I met War Correspond
ent Little, who was a passenger on the
Korea yesterday, and several others.
Although 1 was in the pay of the
Russian government, 1 was something
of an uitlander. 1 saw Kuropatkin
several times. but my work brought
me in contact with General Gregoro-
witch, chief of the transportation work.
Our arrangements were to take am
munition from Mukden across country
to the railroad line, then down the
country to the Gulf of Liaotong. There
the stuff was loaded on to junks and
by them taken out and loaded into a
blockade-runner. We carried the shells