The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-11-07
THE TREATY OF PoRTsMourH.
General Belief That at Best It Can
Be Nothing More than a Truce.


Be Nothing More than a Truce.
When the Treaty of Portsmouth was
signed, a million Japanese were in
Manchuria 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-five. 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 inn
potent silence they had been COM
PEELED to listen to the tales Of the
bors. At last their time came, and
they marched gaily forth to join the
valiant ranks.
The three-quarters of a million
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 Yalu
through Manchuria to within sight of
the Sungari. With throbbing hearts
and stified exultation they recalled five
great battles and twenty-five smash
ing minor engagements, each a vic
tory, bitterly bought, desperately held.
NOgi's men, in fifteen months, had
made record which entitled them to
rise above the centuries and bid the
hail of fellowship to Caesars Tenth
Legion. For seven months they had
held Port Arthur by the throat, every
night and sday under fire. They had
survived six grand assaults, each in it
self great battle. Barely had they
snatched their inestimable prize when
they were fastened 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 million-the
recruits, with the veterans-had four
yu0pfhc Cf recommendation in q bo Inv eli;
mate, of waiting for the final effort in
smiling halo of lusty Manchu sum-
mer, and of an even mightier prepar-
alton, for successful combat. The
army front was spread forth until it
stretched, from tip to tip, $50 miles.
From Kawamuras Yalu men, hid in
the mountains of the east, to Nogi's
cavalry, patrolling the edges of the
Cobb desert, there lay, in eager array,
$4,000 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, the
main base, were 100000 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-
finr nd n1xy xxyh0 on
they reached Japan did they learn that
the ground they had won at such
frightful 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 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 unsatisfied.
At the time Of the signing of the
treaty the writer was among small
group OF foreigners at Gen. Nogi's
headquarters On the Monaghan border.
This group included British lieuten-
ant-genefal, Turkish major-general,
an English colonel. two English ma
jors and three war correspondents.
The discussion among these ten af-
forded extreme interest. Almost every
possible subject Illuminated by them
at one time or another, and on no SUBJ
ject, save one, were all agreed. But
there was not one dissent to the gen.
eral opinion that the treaty of Ports
mouth could be, at best, nothing more
than a truce. -From Richard Barry's