East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-09-05

al Kuropatkin that he should have
been IN command at the close of the
war, for It seemed to cast upon him
the responsibility for calamitles which
he. had long foreseen and which he
had warned the car would surely
follow unless Russia had kept faith
With Japan by evacuating Manchuria
and turning Port Arthur over to
China as she was required to do by
treaty.
General Kuropatkin has now writ
ten a book in which he reveals the
secret history of the events leading
UP to the war with Japan. OF course
it cannot be published in Russia, for
It states many facts which are by no
means creditable to the czar and his
relations; but in some way which has
not been revealed to the public
copy of Kuropatkin's memoirs has
come into the possession of George
Kennan. Mr.. Kennan has probably
done more than any other American
to acquaint the people of this country
with the true current history of Rus
sia. He has travelled widely in the
empire, visited the prisons, the houses
of the peasantry and the palaces of
the mobiles from ST. Petersburg to the
extremity of Siberia, and what he
discovered, no matter how horrible
II might be. he narrated in lively
style. He is one of the few Ameri-
cans who have mastered the Russian
language, and is therefore competent
to translate Kuropatkins memoirs fol
publication,
The work is to appear in serial
form in McClure's magazine, the first
installment being in the September
number. It is brief, but nevertheless
it is long enough to prove that the
war with Japan was brought on by
systematic autocracy The evacua'
ton of Manchuria was persistently
evaded. Port Arthur was not turned
over to the Pekin government as had
been agreed when 1t was wrested
from Japan at the close of her war
with China. Far from that, it was
rapidly transformed into a fortified
position of enormous strength, while
opposite to it the commercial port Of
Dalny was built by the Russians with
the evident intent of permanent occu-
patton. All this naturally irritated
Japan. But the immediate occasion
for the outbreak of hostilities was the
operations of one Bezobrazoff in
Corea and on the Yalu river This
singular parsonage belongs in that
class of obscure and insignificant in
dviduals who. by gaining mysterious
influence over sovereigns have chang
ed the history of the world. In some
way he interested the Car Nicholas
in his timber operations on the Yalu
river and persuaded him to invest
millions of money in the business.
Other members of the royal family
were drawn into the scheme untl
apparently almost every person neal
the czar had invested money under
Bezobrazoff's influence. He must
have been a man of extraordinary
parts, expert in flattery and a master
oe the arts of servlle persuasiveness.
At any rate his command of the cars
money and confidence made him vlr-
tual ruler of the Russian dominion
i'm eastern Asia. Tfe was able to ap-
point and dismiss viceroys at will,
obtained the dispatch of soldiers into
Corea, contrary to treaty with Japan,
and through his known intimacy with
the czar, terrorized every officia. in
the province Some of them pre-
tended to agree with Kuropatkia In
his policy Of honest dealing with
Japar and frankness with th4 czar,
but they deceived him and played in
to BezobIazoff's hands. Kuroiatkin's
repeated warnings were disregarded.
The japanese were treated with con-
tempt and the war which he had pre-
dicted finally broke out. The subse-
ouent installments Of the memoirs
will show Row it was conducted on
the Russian side.