The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-03
CHARGES AGAINST sroEssEL.
Fort Arthur Generals HOnored for
 Mythical BattIes.

A voluminous document, containing the indictment of Generals Stoessel, Reuss, Fock and Smirnoff, has been published in St. Petersburg. Reuter- says it accuses Generals Stoessel and Fock of sending deliberately false re- ports about battles that never took place, of recommending for decorations their own friends and generals who lost battles and of surrendering fortresses iF spite of ample means of resistance. All the crimes with which Generals Stoessel, Reuss and Fock are charged ara capital offenses.
 The indictment of General stoesseI contains, among others, the following points: General Stoessel disregarded the orders of the commander in chief of the Manchurian army to hand over the command of Port Arthur to Gen. eral Smirnoff and to leave the army,
 but remained instead in the fortress. He violated the order of the Imperial Viceroy, interfered with General Smir- noff's functions and issued countea or ders regarding the defensive works in the second and third lines of fortress.
 He further more made no provision for food supplies, In his report of the &C., ton at Kinchau he stated that he him. self led the troops most energetically, whereas he remained in Port Arthur and took no part in the fight. He re- ported General Fock's retreat as withdrawal, carried out in accordance with orders. On June IA. 1904, he stat
 ed in his dispatches that he had taken
 part in all the engagements, whereas flcm February to June IA the only
 engagement which took place was that
 at Kinchau, at which he was not pres
 ent. With view to justifying his con- templated surrender at Port Arthur,
 General Stoessel notified the Czar on
 December 20, 1904, that the Japanese
 were masters of the situation and Port
 Arthur could only hold out for few
 days longer, as the ammunition was
 running out. In point of fact the great
 majority of the council of war had de-
 clared for defending Port Arthur to the
 last extremity, and had stated there
 was abundance of ammunition; in addi- tion General Stoessel consciously and
 unjustifiably bestowed the Order of St.
 George upon General Fock for the bat tie of Kinchau which General FocS lost, and in which he displayed the
 grossest incompetence The same dec
 oration was conferred upon General
 Reuss, who himself admitted that he had done nothing to earn such an hon.
 or, General Stoessel evacuated several
 forts without exhausting every means
 of defense and authorized General
 Reuss to sign conditions of equalization ignominlous to Russia. General Stoessel did not himself share the fate of the
 garrison, nor accompany them into captivity"
 Capital punishment Is provided by the Military Code for all these crimes. The ! indictment charges General Fock with being equally guilty on all counts with 1 General StoesseL It declares that he displayed incompetency and opposed
 General Stoessels commands, and that
 he delivered false report regarding l the battle of Kinchau, and under the
 excuse of lack of ammunition retreated
 in full daylight, causing in conse- quence, great losses to the troops. Gen ! eral Reuss is charged with being an ac- cessory of General Stoessel and Gen.
 eral smirnoff is accused of "supine-
 ness" in not putting a stop to the con-
 duct of Generals Stoessel, Fock and Reuss.