Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-08
SOME INSIDE HISTORY
Events Leading to the Russo
Japanese War.
FIGHT OVER CONCESSIONS
Bezobrazoff's Syndicate Attempted to
Steal Korean Timber Lands.
BACKED BY ROYAL FAMILY
Empress Dowager Had Subscribed
$4,000, 900 Toward the Enterprise
-Czar Was Also Interested.
BACKED BY ROYAL FAMILY

BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the Chicago
Record-Herald.
ST. PETERSBURG. July 10. 1905.
Let US leave the car and the douma and
the peasants and politics for few mo-
ments and talk about some Of the people
we became familiar with from the news
paper reports of the Japanese war.
Admiral Rojestvensky has been tried by
court-martial for his surrender of the re-
mains Of the Russian fleet and has been
acquitted because the evidence showed that
he was unconscious when the flag was
hauled down, but officers commanding sew
eral of the torpedo boats were convicted
and sentenced to death. The members OF
the court-martial made a perfunctory APP
peal for mercy to the car in their behalf,
and they will probably be pardoned and dis
missed from the service before you read
these lines. The whole proceedings were
purely formal for the purpose Of making
record and closing up the history Of the
war so far as the navy is concerned.
Charges Against stoessel.
But the army will not complete its record
so easily. Gen. Stoessel. who surrendered
Port Arthur, gets 1t next. and Will appear
before a court-martial soon. He Is now at
Moscow nominally under arrest and forbid
den to leave that city. The German empe-
ror bestowed decorations upon Stoessel and
Nogi, the Japanese general who captured
Port Arthur. The car bestowed upon Stoes-
sci the highest Russian military order, that
Of st. George. and promoted him to the
rank Of full general II he Is convicted by
the court he will be compelled to return
these honors and his promotion will be re-
voked. no matter what the sentence may
be. Many officers and newspaper people
familiar with the evidence and the temper
Of the generals who Will sit In the court
expect that the penalty will be death.
The charges. generally speaking. are that
Stoessel did not make good defense: that
he surrendered when there was no neces-
sity for doing so: that there was plenty
Of food in the warehouses; 1000 pools OF
beef "a pood is forty pounds: 62,OOO pools
of buckwheat. 5000 pools Of barley. 1000
pools of biscuits and a corresponding
amount Of other commissary stores: 4,0OO
horses and plenty of fodder. 100000 car
tridges and an abundance of other ammunl-
ton. 1t Is charged that he sent an aid
de-camp with flag of truce to the jap
anese without consulting his Officers and
that he surrendered without the usual coun-
Gil of war. 1t is charged that he has tried
to induce his officers to maintain silence by
bestowing favors with liberal hand There
has been so much complaint and criticism
of the decorations and other rewards be-
slowed upon the officers OF the garrison at
Port Arthur that a military commission has
been appointed to revise them and 1t Is ex-
pected that some sensational Information
pathered by that commission will be dis
closed at the court-martfaL
The Truth About the Surrender.
A correspondent of one of the leading st.
Petersburg papers. Mr.. Noschin, has writ
ten a book entitled THE Truth About Port
Arthur" which is likely to increase Gen.
stoessers troubles. During the siege Nos
chin published daily paper called Newt
Kraj, the editors. reporters, printers and
pressmen working while the Japanese shells
were bursting over their heads. Much to
the indigna ton Of everybody, Gen. Stoessel
suppressed this paper and deprived the gar
rison of the amusement it furnished them
because of the publication of a sarcastic
paragraph concerning himself-a statement
that he was always in the trenches and
among the batteries, when the truth was
that he never went beyond the shelter of
the Notifications, and seldom left his bomb
proof headquarters. Noschin, resenting the
suppression of his paper. quarreled with
Stoessel, defied him and was afterward ar
rested and sentenced to death upon pre-
text of alleged treachery in furnishing in
formation to the. enemy. The charge was
besed upon the fact that copies of his paper
found their way outside the earthworks
into the Japanese camps.
made his escape and has since been collect
ing information to use in his exposure OF
the general. The book is already in press
and will appear next month. 1t contains
a review of the siege in detail and Is almost
a diary of Gen. Stoessel's life and trans
actions while he was shut up In the forts.
The author asserts that. although the sur
render did not take place until December
effects December ~: that although the
other officers were allowed to take away
with them Only sixty pounds Of baggage,
she had forty loaded carts. She Is accused
several valuable articles OF gold and silver
and vases of cloisonne which had been de-
posted at her husbands headquarters for
safekeeping by a Siberian regiment, being
loot from the siege of Picking.
The book is filled with similar gossip and
the details are given with great care, with
the names Of persons who are familiar with
the facts.
Alexief Keeping Quiet.
Admiral Alexieff. the viceroy of Manchu-
ria. who was largely responsible for pro-
voking the war, is now living very quietly
In st. Petersburg. He is still In good stand
ing with the government. but not with the
army or navy. Alexieff Is credited with
having made large sum of money In Man
churta. and various scandalous stories are
told about the way in which it was OBJ
afraid of an Investigation by the douma.
and 1t is expected in military circles that
Gen. Kuropatkin, his successor. will start
one as soon as the douma has time to take
up such inquiries. Kuropatkin and Aexieff
arc bitter enemies. They were intensely
hostile before the war ana are even more
SO since.
There Is good deal Of mystery about
Alexiens ancestry. Many people believe
that he Is natural son Of Alexander II.
but his published biographies state that his
father was an American, and the manager
OF the estates of Count Modvinoff; that his
mother was Russian. and that through
the influence Of Modvinoff he secured ad-
mission in 1862 to the school In which the
sons Of noble families are educated for the
naval service. For forty years he per-
formed his duty and was promoted from
grade to grade until he became a vice ad-
miral. In 1901 he was made adjutant gem
erai Of the Manchurfan service In 1908 he
was appointed viceroy OF Manchurfa and
given almost autocratic authority upon the
recommendation Of Mr.. Bezobrazoff, the
agent Of a syndicate having large opera
tions in China and Korea, of which nearly
all the members of the imperial family were
atocx hnidors AleYipY'a Ynofhar rapor.