Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1907-12-12
LONG DRAWN OUT
FORMAL COURT MARTIAL
Veteran Stossel May Yet Lose His
Head--Grim and Chagrined He
Says Not Guilty to the Cars
Court--Did Not Bid Fare
well to Troops.

~. feterSburg, Dec. 12.--The final
tenant General Stossel is drawing to
a close: There have been protracted
delays In taking the testimony in the
far East, but now this material Is In
order and proceedings will go on
rapidly. General Stossel Is accused
or having surrendered Port Arthur
before he had exhausted all resource
es OF defense. The punishment for
this, under the Russian code, is
death. He Is to be tried also on the
charge of lacking initiative and with
having exceeded his powers.
General Fook and General Reiss
are co-defendants with him. The
first Is accused of having consplred
for the surrender Of the fortress and
the second with having executed the
order of surrender. General Smir-
noff, General Stossels enemy. is to
be tried on a minor count. The
erals under the presidency of Vice
Admiral Dubassoff. 1t will include
General Kuropatkin, General Bilder-
ing, General Myloff and others. Gem
eral Garsky will be Judge advocate.
General Stossel Is in pitable state
OF excitement over the f1nal hear
Ing OF his case ana the doctors axe
apprehensivs of Its effect upon him.
He has suffered two paraIytic strokes
since the fall Of the fortress.
What Indictments Charge.
The Indictments against Stoessei,
Reiss, Fook and Smirnoff are full Of
side lights on the final stages OF the
siege of the fortress and on the con-
fusion which existed In the direction
of the defense owing to the ambigu-
Gus position of General Smirnoff
Nominally Smirnoff held the chief
command OF the fortress, but actually
he was supplanted by General Stoes-
sel who was little more than the
mouthpiece of General Fook. Before
communication with Port Arthur was
finally cut off General Kuropatkin
both telegraphed and wrote 10 GEN
era' Stoessel instructing him to hand
over the command of the fortress to
General Smirnoff and rejoin the Man
ohurian army. General Stoessel did
not follow these Instructions. On thu
contrary be remained in command ar
Port Arthur.
The indictments give graphic de-
scription of the straits TO which the
defending forces were reduced by
shell and rifle fire, mines and hand
grenades. The losses were enormous.
In one position alone the casualties
exceeded 400 in one day and at an
other point there were only thirty
survivors from a detachment of more
than 500 men. Nevertheless, neither
General Gorbatowsky nor General
Smirnoff admitted the possibility OF
voluntary evacuating the defenses and
they both bitterly unbraided General
Fook when they heard OF his order
to do so.
The most sensational part of the
indictments relate to the immediate
circumstances of the capitulation.
January 1, the day after the evacua-
ton of the Eagles Nest and other
points General Stoessel sent Lieuten-
T4f a hon In wit q a to GNsnsa
eral Nogi. proposing TO enter into
negotiations for the surrender OF the
fortress. Generals Reiss and Fook
appear to have been the only su-
perior officers cognizant of General
Stoessels intention to capitulate The
news of the dispatch of this letter
caused great indignation among the
generals and admirals. Some of them
protested by telegraph TO Admiral
Alexieff and General Kuropatkin.
The same day General Stoessel sent
his telegram to the emperor. begin
ming with the words:
Great Sovereign, forgive US. We
have done everything within human
limits. Judge US. but judge US mer-
cifully
General Reiss was given full power
by General Stoessel in the final ne
gotfatlons. Stoessel did not bid fare
well 10 the troops when they march
ed out OF the fortress after the sur
render. He retained for his own use
ten OF the eighteen carts placed oy
the victors at the disposal OF the
Russian women In Port Arthur. HIS
only solicitude, witnesses have affirm
ed, was for his own baggage.
1t Will be the duty of the court
martial To determine whether the
captulation Of Port Arthur on Jan
was justified according to Russian
codes and ethics. There were
probably some 1900 fighting men
left at the time of the surrender
The sick and wounded numbered
about $4,000. There Is evidence to
prove that In the matter OF provis-
ions Port Arthur could easily have