Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-26

the deliberate. reasonable Fastening of the
surrender to save his own life. and in def
ance OF the decisions of two successive
councils of war. The report Is biased in the
extreme, breathes the most bitter personal
enmty, and shows that the high officers of
the Port Arthur garrison in the darkest
days of the siege were almost at each others
threats. Only the late Mai. Gen. Kondra-
tenko, commander of the 18th East Siberian
Rifles, had the confidence of both Sides The
report explains the references made In Gen
huropatkfn's report of Gen. Stoessers de-
moralization of the garrison. The indictment
Is summed up in the conclusion of Gen.
Smrnoff as follows:
Smirnoff's Accusation.
"A series of objectionable blunders out
side the fortress, due to the ignorance and
lack of military capacity and martial Prov
ess of Generals Stoessel and FOck brought
about the investment of the fortress several
months earlier than necessary and after
the investment a desire for undeseryed glory
moved Stoessel to interfere in the defense
with unfortunate results. Finally at the last
period of the siege, Stoessel usurped my au-
thority with the assistance of Generals
fock and Reiss. and committed treason in
surrendering suddenly and prematurely.
regard our defeat at Mukden as a direct
result of this treason
The report opens with Gen. Smirnoff
appointment as commandant of the fortress
and his arrival. March II, 1904, at Port Ar
be half finished. The friction between
Stoessel and Smirnoff. due to the overlap
ping of their authority, began at the out
set over the plans for the Defense Stoes-
sci, though not an engineer, overriding
Smirnoff's selection of points for fortifica-
ton and failing to grasp the Importance
OF such positions as 2O3 Metre Hill. Many
incidents are cited as showing stoessers
disregard of the interests of the fortress
In preparation for the Siege Smirnoff pro-
nloited the withdrawal of provisions, but
Stoessel allowed their sale to .-.e field army
Smirnoff's directions that no lights were to
De SHOWN facing the sea, as they would
guide the Japanese torpedo boats and fire
ships. were defied by Stoessel. who threat
ened to arrest Prince MikeIadze, the chief
of gendarmes, for speaking to Stoessers
servants on the subject. Later Reiss re-
moved the whole of the princes force
which was valuable for spy detection be-
cause the gendarmes reported officers of
ReisS' regiment for maltreating soldiers
Smirnon orders. for the establishment of
hospital for the treatment of soldiers
suffering from contagious diseases was re-
Voked by Stoessel because the site chosen
would lessen the deSira bility as a residence
of Gen. Fock's villa The order was only
reissued late in October, 1904, when many
patients persisted on account of their re-
movai in inclement weather.
Ignorant of Engineering.
A run on the Russo-Chinese bank at Port
Arthur followed the investment of the
fortress, and Smirnoff was unable to draw
funds for the defense. He therefore ap-
pealed to Stoessel to advance him $500 600
from his corps treasury to pay for Chinese
labor and prevent a cessation of the work
of terrifying Port Arthur. Stoessel refused
though Smirnof explained the urgency of
his request, and later appealed to Kondra-
tenko, who succeeded in getting a small
sum to enable Smirnoff to continue his
work, though on a diminished scale
of ha
battle of kinehau, which Smirnoff refers
to as shameful affair, and attributes to
bad generalship, the army retired to the
fortress, and Stoessel announced his in
tention of assuming command. Smirnofr
declaring that he had been appointed com
mander by the emperor personally, refused
to renounce his rights, and, summoning
kondratenko and Reiss, set forth his rea-
sons for refusing. He said:
Stoessel Is ignorant of the use of ar
tillery and of engineering, and In view of
the cowardice he has repeatedly displayed, 1
suspect that he Is equally UNQUALIFIED to
command infantry"
Continuing the report says that the rela-
tons between Stoessel and the late Rear
Admiral Without. In command of the Rus
sian fleet at the time were most strained
Stoessel insisted that Without detach ships
to lombard the Japanese flank but in view
of danger of the ships in the mined waters
and the inenectiyeness Of naval fire on
land positions Without was most unwilling
TO do So and the result Of the experiment
which was eventually made was the blowing
up of the Russian battle ship Sevastopol
the armored cruiser Bayan and the coast
defense vessel Gramiashchi.
Removal of Fock.
Early in June Gen. Kuropatkin and Ad-
miral Alexieff the viceroy of the far east,
arrived at Port Arthur, and Kuropatkin
severely criticised Stoessels generalship at
Kinchau. his plans for the defense of the
fnrtf hfa
provisions by rounding in the cattle on the
peninsula, as result of which the garri-
son already was On short rations Kuro-
patkin plainly told Stoessel he was de-
moraizing the garrison. and threatened
to recall him. while the viceroy cate
gorfcally forbade him to interfere with the
fleet AS result of these rebukes StoesseI
subsidized and did not interfere with Smir-
noff until the middle of September. In the
meanwhile the japanese undertook their
first most desperate attempts to storm the
fortress. their attacks lasting eight days
Smirnon asserts that he was In full COM
mand and claims all the credit for the de-
Tense. He says he was forced to remove
Gen. Fock from the command of the gen
eral reserve for disobedience to his orders
to send reserves to d threatened point at
a critical moment. StoesseFs account of
the repulse of the storming parties brought
him the imperial thanks, his promotion
and the cross of the Order of st. George,
which encouraged him to renew his inter-
ference with the defense. An unfortunate
order of Stoessel's to mine the forts, In
order to be able to blow them up In case
Of its being necessary to retreat disheart-
ened the garrison. who were demoralzed by
having to live over vast quantities of ex-
plosives. The troops were further affected
by an inJudicious memorandum, circulated
by Gen. Fock. predicting various disasters
which reached the ears OF the soldiers
Another mistake was the removal of the
guns from frontal positions to form an
artillery reserve The scheme of fortifi-
q ~ 2v7atp
altered.
The japanese in the meanwhile had un-
dertaken the work of sapping the defenses
OF Port Arthur. and the Russians were
hampered by the orders of Stoessei in-mak-
ing dfscouraging sorties. which, however
resulted In DESTROYING some OF the japanese
works and In reviving the spirit Of the
garrison. In an attack by storm Septem-
Der 10. 1904. the Japanese carried number
of redoubts and almost succeeded in cap
turing Two Hundred and Three Metre Hun.