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Show Littb Hops fcr Ruuia. That the Russians have made a brave defense of Port Arthur eannot be. denied, but the end of the ; contest has been apparent almost since the siege of - the fortress began. The Japanese have been in no great haste. They have planned their moves care-full care-full j and have carried them out without any material mate-rial failures. They now have command of positions that have enabled them to sink several of the ships f of the Russian squadron, and with those gone the capitulation of the garrison is but a matter of a short time. . . .In the meantime nothing of importance has been done by the Russians at Mukden. They have made no vigorous attacks upon the Japanese and have made no. effort to go to the succor of Port Arthur, j They are waiting for the Japs to take the initiative, which will be done all in good time. : The Japs are in no hurry. They hold most of the trumps and can play them when they choose. With Port Arthur taken the Japs will have a large .force to concentrate at Mukden. It will be larger than the Russian army, and it should be able to defeat.it, or at least To drive it farther north to Harbin The defenses at Mukden are inferior to those at Liab Yang, and the Japs had things their own way there. . - y "The destruction of the Port Arthur fleet, which teems inevitable, will leave the Jap fleet free to give battle to the Baltic squadron When it reaches the acerie of operations. Judging from previous naval engagements, there, can be but one result the defeat de-feat of the Russians. Tliere is no telling when the decisive military action ac-tion will take place. It is cold in Manchuria now, but the Russians suffer just as much as the Japs, and perhaps more, for they are farther from their base ,f supplies. . The opposing armies may remain growling at each other until spring, bnt when the battle does take place it is almost certain there will be another Russian retreat. And there is no retreat beyond Harbin. If Russia loses that point she loses control of her trans-Siberian railway, and it will be practically impossible for her to transport more troopft and supplies to the front. Vladivostok will be of no use to her, for Japan can blockade the port effectually. . It isTio more unreasonable to assume that the Russians VHnose'Harbin than that they will lose Mukden. It seems the logical result of the campaign. cam-paign. If Russia does lose Harbin she has lost the . wati - By bluff and loud talk she has managed to makti the world believe that her reverses have not crippled crip-pled her seriously, but they have. She is near to the end of her rop. " The Japs have been too much for her. .. , '- , . |
