The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-11-06
DEFENCE
FINE MILITARY FEAT
German Forces Hang on Tena-
ciously. without Hope Of
Rcenforccments.
SHOW NATIONS SPIRIT

While the battles in Flanders and
Poland are occupying the attention OF
the whole world tho news from the Far
East points 20 the approach OF the end
OF one OF the most splendid OF military
feats. the defence OF Kiao-ohow. No page
in all that will recount tho heroism and
devotion Of German, or indeed any. SOL
diers In the great war II moro certain
TO endure than that which tells OF the
long protracted defence OF n fortress not
against an army or feet but against
a nation
AZ a measure ~ German spirit Kao-
chow Ii far moro satisfactory than any
European battle. Tho splendid coures.
OF the latest boy conscript advance along
the User In the face OF machine guns
and magazine rifles Mt point blank range
has earned the tribute OF tho British his
torian Of tho daily campaign events. But
behind these boys was tho whole weight
Of German military power. the stimuli,
OF recent victory and the expectation OF
future decisive success
For tho defenders OF Kiao-chow there
never was any such driving force. The
moment that Japan. with her great re-
sources. her army which had conquered
Russia her fleet which made her supreme
In the East. threw her lot In with tho
allies the fate Of Klao-chow was deter
mined. II became thereafter merely n
mathematical question. tho prospective
defence, n mathematical question involv-
ing simply tho problem Of how long a few
thousand Germans without hope OF re
lief with the certainty that neither sup
plies nor reenforcements could reach
them. could keep their flag flying IN the
face OF tho military power of nation
larger than France and recently tho con-
querors in tremendous war.
From such n conflict. too, IT might well
have been expected that all but the few
soldiers actually charged with the test
would have shrunk. that these would have
contentcd themselves with a formal
brief ard honorable. resistance, and then
the surrender which would not have i'm
pugned their courage or brought disgrace
to their nag
Yet nothing Of the sort ever entered
the mind n the Germans OF the East.
First OF all. before the japanese Invest
nent began stray correspondence told va
OF tho fashion In which from every cor
mon were turning hack 10 kiao-chow.
These were not soldiers. but civilians.
They were not boys for whom the pros.
ncct Of battle. however hopeless. IL n
sufficient appeal Rut young and old.
weak and strong. this tide OF mon moved
quietly but swiftly toward IN" threat
ened German port. their single place in
/ the Asiatlc sun
Most OF these mon were old enough.
/ sufficiently experienced. 10 know exactly
what was To come. Kiao-chow was not n
/ Port Arthur The garrison Of the GER
. man possess on was not a tthe or that
Stoessel had IN his Russian fortress. For
months Stoessel could and did hope for
reinforcement. But Fort Arthur fol-. The
great forts that crowned the mountains
OF the peninsula of Kwang-tung crumhled
to dust Hundreds Of thousands OF Jap
I anese moved on res,stlessly TO victory and
many TO certain death
All this the Germans OF the Far East
knew. once the japanese lines closed
/ about them once Japanese army corps
/ came M from tho west and Japanese
squadrons sealed the bay there would be
nothing to expect hut slow. steady, in
evitahle advance of the enemy, the pound
ing TO pieces Of futile forts. In the face
OF all this, Of certain defeat probable
, death, the Response of the Germans in
Asia was Instant unanimous.
And now for two months the flag OF
the German Empire has been kept flying
on the forts Of Kiao-chow Day by day
I Japanese troops have advanced 4 nation
against garrison has made It's Inevitable
progress. But only slowly. Day by day
tho Toxic reports have chronicled new
destruction OF defences, a closer approach
to the citadel Of German resistance, and
yet 10 this hour the stand of handful
against nation has been maintained
To-day the wireless OF Kiao-chow is sllen,
n nd
the defenders, but Kiao-chow even now
seems untaken.
II is difficult to eNaEperatc tho moral
value OF the Kiao-chow defence, as II
reflects the spirit and the determination
OF great people British statesmen and
journals have delighted To tell the world
that Great Britain Is making war to save
the German people from miitarism. &c
bring independence to tho oppressed Teu.
| TONS was there ever moro Complote
more crushing answer to such cant thar
that supplied by Kiao-chow by tho re
sponse OF the Germans ef tho East to a
call not 10 battle hut to disaster TO a
summons not to possible victory but tC
inevitable defeat and destruction?
In Europe German military power still
huks large, German armies are stul or
hostile soil in the east and in the west
The great tradition OF prussan invinci
biity has been shaken but not vet do
!
mains supreme In its own land and as yo
inoNpugnable In France and Belgium
Yet even here II In no longer possible
for any but the wilfully blind TO mistake
, the fact that Il Ia not the machine that
IA now making German armies potent I'm ar
, attack still continuing. The songs of the
boy conscripts OF 1914 are but the echo
OF the songs OF those other boys OF 1871.
I and 1914 who freed Europe from Napoleon
ana saved Germany from complete sub,
! jugaton, II Is Uncomfortable that there
should remain a single person who could
, honestly believe that tho German phenom
enon which fills Europe to-day IL les,
than the complete, solidned fused reso
luton OF whole nation
Nor is II tho German man whose co,r.
age seems most striking in tho scam,
reports that come 10 us from Germany
As the women Of our own Confederac,
preserved an uncomfortable spirit and un,
shaken devotion TO the end, after the end
SO now II In clear the women OF German,
are giving all that their resources afford
So we hear OF mothers who have san
, four sons TO tho front and regret tina
they have not more to send Above anc
beyond all else the thing that must h,
observed by all men OF varying sympathie
and OF no sympathles I'm this great wal
Is that whole people believing itsel
: fighting for it's existence, Is making 4
fight which nations and races only max
when they go forth to battle w!thou
: reservation, without the smallest u,lest ia,