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Show .THE CONDITION I IN PORT ARTHUR As Told By Inmate Before Surrender HIS WORDS PROVE TRUE By the Fall of the City On New Years Day. ToUo, Dec. 110, evening -The navy depaitment published tonight a letter wilLten by a man of Hie battleship Sevastopol which had fallen into the hands of the 'Japanese. The wilier despalis of the lellcf of thefoitrcss anil tells of the destruction ought dy Japanese shells. He says the Uussians aic icslgned to their fate but are determined de-termined to fight to a llnlsh lather than sulTer the shame of sunendcr, owing to starvation. Kollowlng is tlio text of the letter: The fortress cannot resist after December. De-cember. The progress of the enemy in reducing our principal line or outer defenses Is not fully known, but it Is Ineslstlble. We are sadly diappointed over the non-arrl val of the Second 1'aclflcMUiad-roii 1'aclflcMUiad-roii and aic dally Hearing our miserable . end. Z-'Oeneral Stocsscl's socallcd impregnable impreg-nable line of outer defenses is now a myth. With 20:i-Mcler hill lost the fall of l'ort Aithurcannot be avoided. Itscapturc by the Japanese means the fall of the town, however stioug the other defenses. "The new town is at the mercy of the enemy's Hie. The old town alone is defenceless, and here alone my ie-sistancc ie-sistancc is piolouged. "Two-thiuls or the defenders of l!o:u Metei hill were lost. "The Sevastopol, which was exposed j to the enemy's Hie In the day time.on the night or Dec. 8. without being, towed, left the liaibor wltli only 111 insteadofliercomplcmcntof lifiO souls. I When she went out she had her nets ( down, hut was shuck twice by the ( enemy's torpedoes and was beached, irrepaiably damaged. General Stoes j sel highly pialsed the ollleeis and ciew , of the ship. ( "Kuel Is almost unobtainable and It is Impossible to keep our bodies watin. "We no longer have a wiieless telegraph tele-graph system and have no means of! communicating with the outside woild. Our isolation is complete Theie is no news and we have had no , infoi matlon for a long time, it is impossible im-possible to smuggle ammunition. The King Arthur brought only bailc). (The KingAithur. a lliitish steamer was captmed Dec. II). while attempting attempt-ing to leave Poit Arthur by the Japanese Japan-ese guaulshlp Asagaii. She had on boaid Itusslan naval ollleeis who were attempting to Join the Russian second Pacillc squadron. She is now at I Sasebo, mulct going trial. j " i'heio is u largo hole in the hull of j the Sevastopol and she Is completely disabled. All that lemalns for those on board her Is to do their utmost in rep.ilsinu' tho enemy's attacks. 'The enem.v'.s torpedo boats came clase to the Sevastopol and attacked her as If they were going thiough ordinary or-dinary maneuvcis. 'Should the Sevastopol sink, we aie to land at place already decided upon. All ate, however, prepared to light to very last. On us of the Sevastopol depends tho tint of retaining the honor of the navy and avoiding the shame and humiliation or thteatened slatvatiou, We would rather die than be thus shamed. "Fiom Dec. I the encno'.s ten-Inch shell began to fall on the deck of tho Sevastopol ami uomuot them pieiced thiough tiiu decks to the bottom of the ship. "Who Is icsponsiblo for tho fate wc face? It Is he who did notglve instruction in-struction for tho piovenl'on of a Jap-aneso Jap-aneso landing on the Lino Tung peninsula. Among our oillcois thorp nrc very-few very-few who dans to bravo death' tlio ma-Joilty. ma-Joilty. having no other desire? than to save their own lives but wo tiro deter-mined deter-mined to die fighting." . t |