The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1907-10-04
THE TREATY OF PORTSMOUTH.
General Belief That at Best IL Can
Be Nothing More than a Truce.

signed, million japanese were In
Nanchuria and Korea. A quarter OF
these were new men, poured in after
the battle Of Mukden. They were
mostly boys between sixteen and nine
teen and men between forty-one and
forty-hve. They had come from home
eagerly. spurred by tales of recent
glory. for a summer campaign in
Chosan. The age limit had kept them
from the paths Of greatness through
the first year OF the war, while in i'm
potent silence they had been COM
PEELED to listen 10 the tales Of the
bravery OF their relatives and neigh
bors. At last their time came, and
they marched gaily forth TO join the
valiant ranks.
The three-quarters of million
whom these recruits joined were sea-
soned veterans, fit to face any troops
the world has ever produced. Kuroki's
men, In eighteen months, had marched
triumphantly from Chemulpo through
Korea TO the Yalu, and from the falu
through Manchuria 10 within sight OF
the Sungari. With throbbing hearts
great battles and twenty-five smash
Ing minor engagements, each vic
tory, bitterly bought, desperately held.
Nogfs men, in fifteen months, had
made a record which entitled them to
rise above the centuries and bid the
hail OF fellowship to Caesars Tenth
Legion. For seven months they had
Art hnr NV ha
| night and day under fire. They had
survived six grand assaults, each in It
self great battle. Barely had they
snatched their inestimable prize when
they were hastened by forced marches,
In the dead of winter, three hundred
miles across a frozen plain, only TO
fight for twenty-five successive days
through the battle of Mukden, and
barely-to win. Oku's soldiers could
look back TO glorious Nanshan, the
worthy brother of Balaklava and Mis-
sionary Ridge, and then through the
brunt of the work at the center in the
aceldamas of Litoyang, the Sha, and
Mukden. The followers of Nodzu and
Of Kawamura bore scars as worthy,
If not as famous.
Together then, these nillion-the
recruits, with the veterans-had four
months of recuperation in balmy cli-
mate, of waiting for the final effort in
a smiling halo of lusty Manchu sum-
mer, and of an even mightier prepar-
alton, for successful combat. The
army front was spread forth until 1t
stretched, from tip to tip, $50 miles.
From Kawamura's Yalu men, hid in
the mountains of the east, to Nogi's
cavalry, patrolling the edges .2f the
Cobb desert, there lay, in eager array,
! 6500 fighting men, trained athletes
in daily drill anxious for the word TO
make the supreme efforts of their lives.
/ Behind them, 800 miles TO Dalny, tine
main base were 350,000 non-combat-
ants, oiling the wheels of progress.
| Suddenly, almost without warning,
came peace. Only the week before the
signing of the treaty did the larger
part OF the army know that negotia-
tons were on. They supposed the
! long halt due to some strategic reason;
that the recruits must be increased,
and that the rainy season must pass.
! They were retired without explana-
| ton. returned home, and only when
they reached Japan did they learn that
the ground they had won at such
| fiightful cost was not to be theirs.
These million men did not get their
! final fight. Confident with the morale
of constant victory, which was not yet
conclusive, they wanted war. When
! they came to consider the terms. they
found they had fought a splendid and
audacious conflict, for which modern
history holds no parallel, and that for
| their recompense they had secured
half rocky island which they did not
want. The Port Arthur which they
| had twice taken, at superhuman cost,
still remained out of their possession.
Called from their work, they were sent
TO the ways of peace unsatished.
At the time of the signing of the
treaty the writer was among small
group of foreigners at Gen. Nogis
headquarters on the Mongolian border.
This group included British lienten-
ant-geleral, a Turkish major general,
an English colonel. two English ma
iors and three war correspondents.
The discussion among these ten az
forded extreme interest. Almost every
possible subject illuminated by them
at one time or another. and on no SUBJ
iect save one. were all agreed. But
there was not one dissent 10 the gen.
eral opinion that the treaty of Ports
mouth could be. at best. nothing more
than a truce.-From Richard Barry S
Underlying japanese Humanities' in
the Century.
Cause and Effect.