Evening star., 1907-10-20
JAPAN'S WAR ACTIVITY
Inside Story of Remarkable
Work Being Done.
REBUILDING PORT ARTHUR
New Arsenal and New Naval Base
Acquired.
GOVERNMENT VERY SECRETIvE,
Purchase of Guns Abroad Decreas
ing as Capacity for Home Man
ufacture Increases.
GOVERNMENT VERY SECRETIvE

| NEW YORK, October 19.-Japan is man
present moment than at any time during
the war with Russia. Under peace Japan
has one more arsenal and one more naval
base than it had under the sharp ext
new naval base have been established
within the last six months and at each
place day and night shifts of laborers
are being worked.
| Port Arthur, or Ryojun, as the Japanese
| have renamed the place, Is the new naval
| base. After the surrender the engineers
| exclusively to the raising of the sunken
Russian ships in the harbor and the dis
mantled Notifications on the land side
were allowed to remain just as they had
| Port Arthur was allowed to remain un-
protected on the land side until two
| months ago, when the war Office sudden
| ly undertook measures to make the place
stronger than it had been under Russian
occupation, and now work is being push
ed there to the extreme extent of the
army's capacity.
These facts and others concerning the
intimate inside workings of Japan's ar
senals, shipyards and naval plants has
been obtained from a man who recently
returned from Japan and who, because
of his former close relations with the
japanese war office, now severed has had
free entree to Japan's warshops and
shipbuilding plants in his capacity OF
agent for foreign manufacturers OF ar
senal machinery. Through the quasi
advisory status of his relations with the
commanders of the Japanese arsenals and
the engineers in the naval plants. he has
had explained to him details which no
military representative of a foreign power
could obtain. He has been in the gun
shops of Toxic demonstrating to the ma
tive artisans the action of the machines
he had sold
In giving information about the po-
tential strength and present capacity OF
Japan's arsenalS and Shipyards, your IN
formant insisted that it be- kept conf
Dental until his departure from this coun-
try. He sailed for England today.
Rehabilitating Port Arthur.
According to this gentlemans opinion
the most significant phase of the present
pressure of work in the Japanese arsenals
and naval stations is the tremendous eff
iort that is being made to put Fort Ar
-hur on a defensive bass. Two months
lgo Maj. Arita. the chief engineer of the
TOXIC arsenal, the largest small-arms
mandatory in Japan. was assigned TO go
10 Port Arthur and establish there naval
base, In fact, and to superintend the re-
construction of the land defenses. Simul-
taneously with Arita's appointment. Or
iers were given a foreign firm of arsenal
machinery manufacturers for all the tools
,auuste to construct 4-inch, S-inch and
Pinch guns. Shipments were on be made
o Port Arthur direct.
With the advent of Arita plans for
completely equipped naval plant, ory
docks, machine shops and gun factories
have been put under way. Pending the
erection of the gun-making plant big
guns from the Osaka factory have been
forwarded to Port Arthur and are being
mounted on the lines of forts back OF the
city as fast as these can be rehabilitated.
Before another year is past Port Arthur
will be as strong a naval station as SaSe-
10 or Maizuru in japan proper now are
The new arsenal that Japan has added
to it's war equipments within the last SIX
months Is about five miles outside OF
Oyene Park in the north of Toxic, and is
a branch of the main Toxic arsenal. The
main Toxic arsenal has another brancn
at Nayoga, about midway between Toxic
and Kobe. The Nayoga arsenal manu-
factures rife parts which are assembled
at Toxic.
The small arms capacity of the Toxic
and Nayoga arsenals has been increased
within the last six months. From an out
put of 800 rifles day these factories have
increased their capacity within the past
six months to 800.
Another marked increase In capacity
has been made in the Maizuru Chnjufu
the naval station on the northwest coast
of Japan on the Japan sea. AT the time
of the war MaiZuru was only one of the
minor naval stations. and possessed small
capacity for the repairing and equipping
of battleships. but with the orders issued
by the war board at Toxic year ago
Maizuru has been put into posit on sec
ond only to kure, the largest of Japan's
naval shops, situated west of Kobe, on
the Inland sea.
Summary of the Situation.
Maizura now has three dry docks
capable of accommodating the largest
ships in the Japanese navy. At Kure
and Yokosuka yards battleships have
been built and are now building. The
kure gun plant is capable of turning
out guns from three to twelve inches,
and employs 5000 men.
Because of the Increased CAPACITY of
the home plants for gun manufacture
the purchase of heavy ordnance from
abroad has steadily decreased
Your informant thus sums up the ma
ture of the work being done in the
Japanese shipyards and arsenals:
The war Office Is having more work
done than at any time during the war
with Russia. The output of the arsenals
is larger than it ever has been. and the
work that has been done in putting the
Port Arthur and Maizuru naval bases into
shape has increased the defensive arm
OF the japanese navy by great deal. 1t
is surprising to one knowing the finan-
cial situation of the empire to see the
tremendous expenditures being made on
preparation for war. Yet it is all being
done so quietly that nobody not con-
nected with the military knows anything
about the situation. None of the news
papers is allowed to print any details
that the government does not itself give
out for publication, and that Is of the
most meager sort. A paragraph of six
lines in foreign paper published in Yoko-
hama announced month ago that the
government had placed an order with
the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company of
England for an 1s,OOO-ton battleship."