The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-10
COURT MARTIAL OF GEN. STOESSEL Final Stage of Trial of Rus sian General Who Sur
 rendered Port
 Arthur.
SIDE LIGHTS ON GREAT CAMPAIGN
|Other Generals Involved-Ku- ropatkin Sits as One of
 the Judges of the Court.

St. Petersburg, Dec. 9.-The final .etage of the court martial of Lieut.. ZGeneral Mikhailovitch Stoessel will be- zgin in this city tomorrow. There have abeen protraoted delays in taking the Testimony of the witnesses in the far east, but now all this material is in or der and the proceedings will go on rap atdly.
 General Stoessel is accused of having Surrendered the fortress at Port Ar 8 thur before he had exhausted all the resources of defense The punish znent for this, under the Russian coae' Is death. He Is to be tried also on the charge of lacking initiative and with Shaving exceeded his powers sen. HFock and Gen. Reiss are co-defendants with him. The first is accused of hay Ing conspired the surrender Of the fortress and the second with having executed the order of surrender. Gem bral snirnoff, General Stoessels most bitter enemy, is to be tried on a minor Eount.
 The court will be composed of nine Benerals under the presidency of Vice Admiral Doubassoff. It will include EGei Kuropatkin and others.
 The basis of the indictment is prac- |E Eioally identical with that set forth in he secret report of the defense of Port SlArthur made by Gen. smirnoff, but bounsel for the defense have announced heir intention of broadening the scope bf the inquiry to bring in the conduct bf the ministry of war both prior to bnd during the war with Japan.
 The trial is exciting intense interest h army circles Every ticket to the little auditorium in the Army and Navy club, where the hearing will be eld, has been taken by army officers f high rank. It is a curious coinci- ence that this room in the club was he scene, some months ago, of the ac- eptance by %ile minister of war of the word of honor purchased by public Subscription in France for presentation < b General Stocssel in recognition of 8 Is heroic defense of Port Arthur. Af- 3 er the accusations broughtA against General Stoessel the contemplated in- cription was changed and the sword % vas presented instead to the RMsHiar Ermy. The trial will last fortnight. # Iajor Tsunova, of the Japanese navy, rho was General Nogi's chief of staff E ewspaper correspondents have been turing the war, as well as several # ummoned as witnesses but their at Tendance is uncertain
 General Stoessel is to-day in a pitia- le state of excitement over the final earing of his case. The doctors are pprehensive of the effect of the trial pom the veteran officer, who has suf- r Bred two paralytic strokes since Tne hll of the fortress. The general told he representative of the Associated Press to-day that he was very glad ldeed that the trial after It's endless elays was finally coming to a close. le expects to be fully reha abllitated.
 The indictments against General E toessel, Reiss, Fock and Smirnoff are E lll of sidelights on the final stages of he fortress and on the confusion which I Eisted in the direction Of the defense F 2wing to the ambiguous position of eneral Smirnoff. Nominally this gen. ral held the chief command of the brtress, but actually he was supplant- l by General Stoessel who was little bore than the mouthpiece of Genera, ock.
 Before communication with Port rthur was finally cut off Gen, Kur- : batkin both telegraphed and wrote tc en. Stoessel instructing him to hand X CT the command of the fortress tC en. Smirnoff and rejoin the Manchur.
 n army. Gen Stoessel did not follow < lese instructions. On the contrary ht E mained at Port Arthur and arrogatet
 himself the supreme authority. Gen nirnoff found his hands completel, |a ed. His suggestions were ignored, hi
 ders countermanded, and his subor
 mates received direct orders iron len. stoessel without any reference tt
 mself,
 Much of the evidence at the prelim
 ary inquiry turned on the allegation gainst Gen. Stoessel of military incap city, lack of foresight in regard to tn
 llection of food supplies, and failur
 make the best use of his troops b!
 -oviding them with adequate rations
 a military council held on Decem ,r ' the food condition was formulat
 in Gen. Stoessels name by Gen
 eiss, chief of staff. This proposal wa
 jected by the council.
 A week later Gen. Fock is consider
 to be responsible for the evacuation
 vitally important forts between De ;mber IS and January 1, and the evi 2 hnce on this point is incontrovertible
 he indictments give a terribly graphi
 escription of the straits to which tn
 intending forces were reduced b aell and rifle fire mines and han
 enades The losses were enormous one position alone the casualties ex
 eded 400 in a single day and at an
 her point there were but thirty sur
 vors from detachment of over 30
 en. Nevertheless neither Gen. Cor
 ltowsky nor Gen smirnoff admitte
 e possibility of voluntarily evacuat
 g the defences and they both bit H rly upbraided Gen. Foek when the
 satd os his order to do 50.