| OCR Text |
Show Jap taliip Strikes a lee Towed Away in a Disabled Condition Con-dition From Port Arthur. Ar-thur. CIIEEFOO, May 23. The captain of a Russian merchantman, who left Port Arthur on May 20, is amongc the recent arrivals from Dalny. He says in an interview that the whole of tho Japanese fleet had not returned to Port Arthur since the lGth Inst., when, besides the battleship Hatsusc, another big Japanese warship struck a mine and was towed away disabled. Gunboats arid torpedo boats returned off the port on the 20th, when the Russians Rus-sians succeeded in sinking a small gunboat gun-boat and two torpedo boats. The Russians are now confident of holding- Port Arthur with the 30,000 men now stationed there, exclusive of the navy and crowd of mechanics working on the damaged warships, all of which, except the Czarewitch and the Retvl-zan, Retvl-zan, arc ready to rejoin the fleet. Those will also be ready for service by the 1st of June. The entrance to the harbor has been cleared, and small tyoats now pass In and out freely from Port Arthur to Dalny. The forts on the land side -of Port Arthur have been completed and nrc now prepared for a severe contest. Of the few soldiers left at Dalny, the majority have gone to Port Arthur, and the only defenses left there now are the mines In the harbor. The attempt of the Japanese to land troops In the Kin Chau gulf on the 16th Inst, failed owing to Insufficient water to float the boats. There has been no fighting in the vicinity vi-cinity of Port Arthur up to Saturday, since the Kin Chau light on the 15th Inst., when two squadrons of Japanese cavalry were wiped out, only eight men of which escaped. Seveial unsuccesful attempts were made by the Japanese to land troops at Tallenwnn last week, It Is said. On the way over passengers on tho Junk just arrived heard firing in the direction of Port Arthur last night. The Japanese have reported to the Consuls here that a wreck in. the Llao Tung gulf Is dangerous to navigation, and it Is possible that this Is the other ship said to have been damaged at Port Arthur on the 15th, as the Japanese Jap-anese fleet Is known to have entered the gulf after the disaster to the Hats-use. |
