The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-12-10
final STAGE OF
y ST0ESSEL'S TRIAL
BEGINS TO-DAY BEFORE A JURY
OF NINE GENERALS.
sloELloATs ON THE slEoE
OF Port Arthur are Reflected In the
Indictments Against stoesseI and
Three Other Generals Who
are Co.defendants.

st. Petersburg. Dec 10.-The final
stage of the court-martial of Lieut.
Gen. Stoessel will begin in this city
to-day. Stoessel is accused of having
surrendered the fortress at Port Ar.
thur before he had exhausted all the
resources 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. Gen.
Fock and Gen. Reiss are co-defend.
ants with him. The first is accused
of having cOnspired for the surrender
of the fortress and the second with
having executed the order to sIrren-
der. Gen. Smirnoff, Stoessel's most
bitter enemy, is to be tried on a
minor count.
generals, under the presidency of
clude Gems. Kuropatkin, Bilderling,
Myloff and others.
The basis of the Indictment is prac-
tically identical with that set forth In
the secret report of the defense of
Port Arthur made by Gen. Smirnoff,
but counsel for the defense have an
bounced their intention of broadening
the scope of the inquiry to bring in
the conduct of the ministry of war,
both prior to and during the war with
Japan.
The trial Is exciting the most In
tense interest in army circles. Every
ticket to the little auditorium in the
Army and Navy club where the hear
ing will be held has been taken by
irmy officers. It Is curious coinci-
lence that this room in the club was
he scene, some months ago, of the
ccoptance by the minister of war Of
he sword OF honor purchased by pub
ic subscription in France for presen-
alton to Stoessel In recognition of
lis heroic defense of Port Arthur. Af-
er the accusations brought against
stoessel the contemplated Inscription
vas changed and the sword was pre-
iented instead TO the Russian army.
The trial will last a fortnight.
The indictments against Gems.
stoessel, Relss, Fock and Simirnoff
are full of sidelights on the final
itages OF the siege of the fortress and
n the confusion which existed in the
Erection Of the defense, owing to the
ambiguous position of Gen. Smirnoff.
Nominally this general held the chief
Command of the fortress, but actu-
My he was supplanted by Stoessel,
who was little more than the mouth
piece of Gen. Fock.
Before communication with Port
Arthur was finally off Gen. KurOpat-
Kin both telegraphed and wrote to
Stoessel instructing him to hand over
tho command n 10 artr ,.t
off and rejoin the Manchurian army.
tons. On the contrary he remained
at Port Arthur and arrogated to him
self the supreme authority.
Smirnoff found his hands tied. His
suggestions were ignored, his orders
countermanded and his subordinates
received direct orders from Stoessel
without any reference to himself.
Much Of the evidence at the prelimi-
nary inquiry turned on the allegations
against Stoessel of military incapac-
lty lack OF foresight in regard to the
collection Of food supplies and failure
TO make the best use of his troops by
providing them with adequate ratiOns.
At military council held on Decem-
Der Z, the food condition was can
vassed and the first idea of surrender
was formulated In Stoessers name by
Gen. Reiss, chief of staff. This pro-
posal was rejected by the council
a week later Gen. F'ock was ap-
pointed chief of the land defenses I'm
succession to Gen Kondratenko, who
mad been killed. Fock Ii considered
to be responsible for the evacuation
of yltally important forts between De-
.cember Is and January | and the evi-
dence on this point is incontroverti-
bic. The indictments give terribly
graphic description of the straits to
which the defending forces were re-
duced by shell and rifle fire. mines
ana hand grenades. The losses were
enormous; on one position alone the
casualties exceeded 400 In single
day and at another point there were
but 80 survivors from detachment of
over 300 men. Nevertheless, neither
Gen. Gerbatowsky nor Gen. Smlrnoff
admitted the possibility OF voluntarily
eyacuating the defenses and they
both bitterly upbraided Gen. Fock
when they heard of his order to do so.
It will be the duty of the court to
determine whether the capitulation of
Port Arthur was justified. There were
probably l7,00O lighting 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 provisions Port Arthur
could easily have held out another
month and the reserves of ammunl.
ton would have sufficed for even
longer than this. The garrison had
300 effective guns when the fortress
was surrendered.
Highwaymen Secured $500.