The sun., 1905-12-31

|
reached It's inevitable climax In military
astrophe, while it's cost has reduced
the wretched subjects of the Car TO a con-
dition OF misery and degradation which
| has led them to welcome death In the streets
at the hands Of the Imperial Guards az
happy termination OF their cherries e&-
| istence.
Seldom in the history Of the world has a
| great nation undergone in the snort space
| Of eighteen months 40 much abasemeht.
The chastisement which Destiny imposed
upon Japan the duty OF inflioting was car
red out effectively, At the end OF year
| from the outbreak Of hostilities not snip
of the great armada which had been COL
lected in the waters surrounding the sup
posed "mpregnable" fortress OF Port Arthur
remained under Russia's control. WIN
the exception OF few fugitives, the waters
of the Yellow Sea had closed over the Port
Arthur fleet. After prolonged and des-
perate resistance, to which no professional
soldier will fail to do ample justice, the
huge fortress, or rather cluster OF fortreeses,
which stood as the outward and visible
sign of Rllssia's prospective domination
Of China and Japan, had been laid low.
AS Viceroy AIexief predicted, Russian
army had landed on Japanese soil, but II
was guarded there by sentries Of the En-
peror Of Japan.
The Times correspondent tells us that,
although the st. Petersburg Government
was unable to see the danger OF the vast
campaign, which it had entered on with a
light heart, the Russian soldiers in the
field soon became keenly alive to 1t, Since
the Napoleonic era, no extensive military
operations had ever been conducted under
circumstances of such stupendous dlttl-
Guilty. Five thousand miles from the seat
Of their power. in foreign land and sur
rounded by an alien population passiveIy
hostile, if not actually at the service of the
enemy, with the sea closed and the life OF
their army dependent on a slender artery,
the severance OF choking of which meant
strategic death, the Russians had fought
on with resolution and endurance deserving
of better fortune and better cause,
Handicapped as they were by their i'm
mense distance from their base OF supplies
and reenforcements with which base they
we're connected only by single iron
track they found themselves opposed to
the national army of great and populous
empire, fighting relatively near its home
and inspired from its highest to its lowest
unit with the unconquerable resolve to
vanuuish or die. 1t is not for moment
disputed in the volume before us that Russia
displayed extraordinary energy and skill
in the management of the great Siberian
Railroad. and thereby, before the close OF
the first year Of warfare, had nearly doubled
her power of reinforcement and supply,
thus giving Englishmen lesson that they
will neglect at the cost of the end of their
rule in India. The unexpected resource
and vigor, however, which was exhibited
by Russia military engineers was counter
balanced by the tardy and unlocked for
discovery that since the German armies
crossed the Rhine in 1870 no such perfect
machinery for war as that possessed by
Japan had been set in motion for the i'm
position of the national will of great
Power.
The Times correspondent willingly con-
cedes that Japan has far outdistanced the
saneuine hopes of her most enthusiastic
admirers What may be termed the grand
strategy" of her campaign has been pru-
dent; the leading of the separate armies
has been satisfa ctory, and the management
of divisions and minor units often brilliant.
japan, in word has thoroughly assmlated
all that was best and greatest in the splendid
army of which the Emperor William was
the head, Bismarck the conscience and
Moltke the soul; and she has more than
doubled the fighting efficiency of her troops
by the influence of a moral code which places
country before self and educates each
individual soldier in the firm belief that
death should come before defeat. "Al the
Il aotn cd
annihilation," wrote Marshal Oyama in a
despatch relating to certain engagement
wherein there was a dreadful loss of life.
We have seen that in personal bravery
the Russian rank and file proved more
than equal to their ancient renown In
respect Of all other tests, however, by
which an army's efficiency is Judged the
Russians found themselves outmatched.
No sane or consecutive ideas of strategy
seem to have dominated Russian councils;
the methods of managing the leading
troops were essentially behind the times,
while in craftsmanship, equipment and
organization the Russian army was utterly
outclassed. The st. Petersburg Govern
ment soon discovered also, that the heart
of the Russian people was not in the war,
and that they rocked little of defeat or
victory, annexation or evacuation, pro-
vided the war might end The campaign
in Manchuria was in recent times the first
in which a Government has endeavored
to wage a distant war of aggression in a
cause unpopular at home, by means of
conscript levies drawn from all the strata
of a nation whether willing or the reverse
To our authors mind, the disturbances
and massacres which took place in European
Russia during 1904, the excesses of which
the levies and the reserves were guilty,
and the total failure of the army at the
front, under conditions with regard to
numbers not always unfavorable for sue
cess, point a moral and reveal the imita-
tions imposed upon autocrats and parla-
ments alike in the employment of national
conscript army of the modern stamp. 1t
is admitted that for the defence OF hearths
and homes against uniustifable aggression
such an army may be practically invincible;
but for the prosecution Of an unjust and
unpopular war of distant aggression it
is pronounced inferior in every respect to
volunteer and professional army, the
first and indispensable condition for its
employment in such a war, without dis
appointment abroad and revolution at