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Show THE WAR SITUATION. H At this writing there is no certain news from H the Orient, but it seems clear that Port Arthur is H in real danger of investment and siege if not of M assault from both land and sea. It seems just as M certain that Vladivostok is practically cut off M from help from Russia and that the massed arm- M ies of both Japan and Russia are drawing close M together in Korea, and that the news of a great M battle there is due at any moment. The com- M mander of the Russian armies left Moscow several M days since for the front and the full Japanese M staff has likewise gone to the field. It will be a H desperate battle evidently, for both nations are H good fighters and it is an all-important battle that is on. If Japan wins it will about result in drlv- H ing the Russians from Manchuria; if Russia wins H it will mean that Japan's war programme is for H the present defeated and there will have to be H an organization on new lines. Japan's navy has H about driven Russia's fleets to cover and if she H now wins the first great land onset, her great ad- B vantage will be followed by Russia's acting on B the defensive only, for three months to come. B Of course all this is in great part speculation, B for no one on this side of the world can reach B any estimate of the number of fighting men in B either army, but the world understands how vital B a victory is to both sides and what demoralization B will come to the defeated, and that both are fight B ing nations. The news will be watched for with B much anxiety for the whole world. B |