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Show JAP FLAG OYER PORT ARTHUR Russians to March Out as Prisoners. Will Be Quartered at tho Village of Yahuth-wei. Yahuth-wei. 1 Officers Will Bo Sent to Dalny, Then Paroled to Return to Czar's Domains. HEADQPARTERS OF THE JAPANESE JAPA-NESE THIRD ARMY AT PORT ARTHUR, AR-THUR, Jan. 3, via Chefoo. Jan. 4 (Censored) The flag of the Rising Sun floats tonight over the captured citadel of Port Arthur. When the news of the surrender of the fortress reached the soldiers yesterday, yester-day, leaping from mouth to mouth, the Japanese drew close to their late enemies ene-mies and fraternized freely with them. With nightfall came great bonfires, rising In the Japanese camp like a blazing blaz-ing halo, while great choruses of "Banzals" echoed through the hills The entire garrison and all the non-combatants- will march out of the city January 5 to the village of Tahuthwel, near the shores of Pigeon bay. from which place the Russ-ian officers will be transported to Dalny und thence to wherever they may desire. Tho prisoners of war will be detained nt the Russian barracks In the village until they can be transferred to Dalny. Conference Was Long. The conference between the Russian and Japanese commlsslor.ers at which the terms of smrrender were arranged took place at the village of Shulshiylng at 1 o'clock yesterday (Monday) afternoon after-noon and lasted until 8 o'clock tonight (Tuesday). The Russian commissioners were Chief of Staff Relss, Surgeon-General Ballaschoff, Col. Vostock and two other staff officers, with two lnterpretcr-The lnterpretcr-The Japanese commissioners were MaJ -Gen. IJIchl. chief of staff; MaJ Yama-oka. Yama-oka. Dr. Arlga ami two others', staff officers, with two interpreters. Tliust has Japan won the great Russian Rus-sian stronghold In the Far East after a five months siege, in which she lost over 50.000 soldiers, who were put out of action In the most sanguinary and' desperate des-perate fighting the world has ever seen. Though the intimation that the Russians Rus-sians were willing to surrender was known to the officers) of the Japanese-staff Japanese-staff on the afternoon of January 1, It was not general I known to the hundred hun-dred thousand of the Investing army until yesterday (Monday). Surprised the Japs. The surrender of the fortress at the present time came as a surprise even to the Japanese, as the desperate determination deter-mination and courage of the Russian, even in the last a.nsaults. Indicated that the struggle would be one to the bitter end. it was well known to the Japanese thai the destruction of the forts guarding guard-ing the main defenses of the western half of the eastern fortified ridge made the Investment of the city uon the east only S matter of a short time, despite de-spite the strongest efforts of the defenders, de-fenders, and also Insured the segregation segrega-tion of the forts further east upon the ridge The steady advance of the besiegers upon the vvet flank, since the capture of .'03 Meter hill, up the valley from the shores of Pigeon bay to the outskirts of the new town enabled them, with the capture of the north Talyankow fort, to close In upon the city from the west and to segregate the Chair hill forts so that they could be dealt with in detail. It was evident, therefore, that de-pita the most determined opposition the Investing In-vesting army could !n a week or ten days closets Invest and dominate Port Arthur City, the center of the whole .system of defense, so that the powerful forts both east and west would be isolated. iso-lated. This fact, however, did not warrant the assumption that the resisting power of the position was at an end. Calculated on a Month. Though the Japanese hoped for the surrender f the fortress, they expected expect-ed that another month would be necessary neces-sary to reduce It because of the evident Intention of the garrison to tight to tho hitter end. It ras been evident since the rapture of 203 Meter hill, the destruction of the fleet and Hie awful manner in Which the forts guarding the western half of the eastern fortified ridi;e had been captured by means of the explosion of dynamite mines, that the lighting ardor ar-dor of the garrison was dampened and that the hopelessness of the Russian position had robbed them nf their dogged determination to resist every inch of the advance if the besiegers. This hopelessness was evidenced In the weakness of the opposition to the rapid (idvrince of the Japanese on the wef-t flank since the fleet was destroyed The tremendous effect of the explosions explo-sions whl.h wrecked Sungshu mountain moun-tain fort, the !ast of the forts guarding the main defenses of the eastern fortl-finl fortl-finl ridge, in -j hlch half of the defenders defend-ers were klll( I and the remainder on-tombed on-tombed or ma'do prisoners, completed tin- disorganization of the defense The subseQUent spirited assault by the J.-'p inese upon principal line of outer fortifications and the higher hills of the fortified ridge Immediately after the capture of Sungshu mountain fort was met with feeble opposition, and the night of January 1 saw the besiegers lii possession 0 wppor lia fl Use V I'j,V fcrtfficd ridge from eat Kcfkivan mountain to the western extremity. Had the garrison fought as It had previously pre-viously done this would have at least taken days to accomplish and would ' have cost many lives. Intimation of Surrender. The first definite intimation of the Russian Intention to surrender came al 4 o'clock In the afternoon of January 1. when the Russian envoys' approached the Japanese lines south Of the III age of Shulshlying They were met by a Japanese staff officer, to whom they delivered the lettei from Gen. Stoessel to Qen. Nogl asking to have a time for parley arranged. In this letter, as already known. Gen. Stocssel admitted the helplessness of furthei Continuing the struggle and that he e as prepared to surrender In order to s-tve the lives of the remnant of the brave garrison Whl li had fought Uj so Inn? and so well, provided suitable terms could be arranged He asked for a conference to settle these terms. MaJ.-Gen. LJIchi, with a large escort, left the Japanese headquarters at 11 o'clock Monday morning and rode to the appointed place. Shortly before 1 o'clock the Russian commissioners arrived, ar-rived, accompanied by a cavalry escort The conference took place with few preliminaries at the village of Shuishi-ymg Shuishi-ymg at l o'clock yesterday (Monday) afternoon and lasted until S o'clock at night. |