The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1905-03-15
CAR WILL
FIGHT ON
War in Manchuria to Go to
Bitter End.
COUNCIL SO DECIDES
Preparations for Defence Of Tie
Pass Being Made with
Frantic Haste

LONDON, March 15.-St. Petersburg
dispatches say that the war council
held at Tsarskoe-Selo, at which War
Minister Sacharoff, General Dragimor-
off and others were present, has decid
| ed to continue the war to the bitter
end
General Kuropatkin in his report has
assumed full responsibility for accept
ing a battle at Mukden. He has COM
| pained TO the emperor that his plans
miscarried, largely through the failure
| of two generals. whose names he does
not state, TO execute his orders. He
also throws blame on some Of the
troops. Which failed TO respond proper
| ~ at the critical moment
| General Oku, reporting to headquar-
tiers, complains of seeing wounded
men being carried across plain she'll
| ed by Russians. He says they shelled
Il large party of stretcher bearers till
they Were out Of range. Hospital carts
crossing the field were plainly followed
with a fire of shrapnel for over n mile.
Tokyo reports say that Japan will
now demand n war indemnity of be-
tween $500.0O0.000 and $7j0,000000.
| Dispatches from Russian headquar-
tiers at Tie pass say that preparations
for the defense of the Notifications
there are being carried on with frantic
haste
General Kuropatkln telegraphs that
General Meyendorff. commander Of the
First army corps, who held the famous
Putiloff hill until the general retreat OF
the Russian army compelled him to
abandon il, has been injured by fall
| from his horse.
General Kuropatkin does not say in
his telegram that he has succeeded in
recognizing his forces.
Eyewitnesses OF the retreat after the
battle Of Mukden describe with pitt
less realism how the panic stricken
condition Of the troops reached its eli
| max. When the Russians were near
the village of Pethke shells burst
among the confused procession of in
fantry and artillery and thousands of
carts. The sufferings of the wounded
in the course of the pursuit were be-
| yond description Most of the foreign
military attaches who were with the
defeated army, including one British
and two American officers, fell into the
hands of the Japanese.
/ Dispatches from st. Petersburg say
that some of the Russian surgeons re-
manned at Mukden TO care for the
wounded who had to be left behind
and are in the hands of the Japanese,
together with several American and
English war correspondents. The san
itary service there is completely dsor
ganlzed. Chloroform and antiseptics
are lacking. and the sick are piled up
on uncovered railway trucks. The NOR
tality among them is frightful. Civil
doctors have been requisltloned and
are operating without cessation.
The railway station Mt Hardin has
been transformed into vast amphl-
theater, where the dead, the dying and
the wounded are so to speak, aban-
doned. The confusion is indescribable.
The Russian army exists in name
only, being at the mercy of the slight
est japanese attack There is ground
for fearing that not a man of the pres
ent fighting force will reach Hardin If
the japanese follow up their success.
The dispatch adds that three Japa-
nese divisions have been in action with
the Third Russian corps on the line Of
the Fan river, between Hsientun, on
the Mandarin road, and Tafanho, on
the railway.
Oku's and Nogi's troops are pressing
westward, following the road to Tie
ling. General Nodzu is marching along
the Mandarin road. General kurokl Is
pushing on TO Telling from Fushun.
| A battle at Telling appears to be in
evtable. The Notifications there are
| the last hone Of the Russians