The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-25
RUSSIA'S ARMY
IN MANCHURlA
Vast Force of the Cars Soldiers in
the Far East.
SIBERIAN RAILWAY WORK
OBSERVATIONS BY COLONEL VAN
r. HoFF.

Washington, Dec. 2t.-colonel John
Van Il. Hon OF the medical corps Of
the United States army has just re-
turned from Manchuria. where he was
sent by order OF The president to OBJ
serve the work OF the medical depart
ment of the Russian army, and IS now
preparing his report Colonel Hon
makes some surprising statements. He
says Mat when he left Hardin in 0c-
tober there were altogether Los. coo
Russian soldiers still in Manchuria and
that two full army corps OF 10000 men
each were then on their way. making 2
total Of 1,l32. 600 Russian soldiers in
Manchurla. Yet there is no evidence
that any have been sent home. The
popular impression has been that the
Russian forces did not exceed half q
million all told.
Colonel Hon also says that the ST.
berian railroad is capa Die OF handling
twenty trains-that is, ten each way
per day-each carrying LOCO men. SO
that il viii not take so long as many
have supposed 20 evacuate Manchuria.
This, however. Colonel Hoff says, is a
general statement, and does not mean
that 10000 men are shipped every day,
The Russians carry their soldiers in
freight cars" said the colonel IAN aV
erage of forty men TO a car and from
thirty TO thirty-iive ears 20 a train"
The officers have what we would call
ordinary passenger coaches. 1t usually
takes eight weeks for a train OF SOL
diers to make the trip of $3.50 miles
from Moscow 10 Hardin. They carry
few supplies. There are many commits
sary stations Ell route and the trains
make frequent stops FOR the soldiers to
rest and feed and take exercise.
The manner in which the Siberian
railroad has handled the troops during
the war has been very remarkable"
continued Colonel Hon. when war
was precipitated the Russians were abb
solutely unprepared They did not ex-
pect war. We have the best of au-
thOrity for believing that there were
no more than $4,000 Russian troops in
MaHchuTia, and the only way 10 get re-
endorsements was TO bring them across
the continent over a single-uack road
twice as far as from here 10 san Fran
cisco. Nor was the road completed at
Lake Baikal Everything had TO be
transferred by ferry, and in winter,
when the ice was several feet thick,
sledges were used instead. At one time
the train crossed over tracks laid on
the ice and a large part OF the army
marched across through the snow At
the border of AIanchuria a tunnel had
been commenced through the Kinghau
range of mountains, but il was not I'm
ished, and during the earlier part Of
the war everything had TO be hauled
over the pass on almost prohibitiVe
grades. The trains had 10 be split up
because a locomotive could haul only
very few cars. The maximum capacity
of the road at that time was nine trains
each way a day, 1000 men TO a train.
The tracks have 6ve-fOot gauge with
siSty-pound rails. In addition to the
troops the railway had to haul their
equipment their horses, ordnance,
tools for building fortiications and all
kinds of military equipment and impe-
dimenUa. Fortunately they did not
have to transport much food.
The troops that first came were
from Siberia, because they were the
most available and could be brought in