Show japs outwitting their foes inefficiency of chaness army s formidable on but poorly equipped badly paid and corruptly managed london sept 10 the japanese aro outwitting their docs that if the latest report from shanghai is to be credited it says that society bay forta miles northwest of port arthur has been occupied by a force of japanese troops who intend to use the island as a base of operations abo chinese were taken completely by surprise and were able to offer no opposition to the occupation of the island or the landing of a large quantity of arms ammunition provisions etc which are being stored then everything connected with the affair indicates the purpose of the japanese to v stand a siege it necessary until the force occupying the island shall have been enforced re sufficiently to justify an attack upon port arthur it is aup posed that the attack upon aci hai wei j may have been a ruse to concentrate the Cliine so attention on that point while a commanding position of the far more important point of port arthur was achieved A dispatch from yokohama that i the japanese marshal started for corea on Thursday to assume com mand of the japanese army it ie said that the japanese forces in corea will eoon number it is supposed that an attack will eoon be made ou peking the tokio correspondent of the cen aral news says that the probability is that the great chinese victories reported in core are pure fiction chinese slow as mud yokohama august 22 via san franc sept 10 the chinese troops acs cording to a correspondent move in time of peace at the rate of ten miles a day and at seven and one half miles in war time if tho chinese at gishu have already left eliat town they cannot arrive at ireijo before the but as there are many rivers on the way their sar rival will be considerably delayed A Ae legram received in tokio bays that t thour chinese men of war and tor boats have left taku for shan hai jawan the actual strength of the chinese army at gazan was according to the prisoners captured there seven companies or men the chinese troops who fled from gazen passed through a road near flojo in komendo Ko gendo about the dinst during the franco chinese war of 1885 there was an englishman who led the chinese forces and fought bravely though the british government was neutral on peace restored be was disclaimed by his government lie has 1 been living in manchuria as a gen wal in the chinese employ since the he has been appointed commander of the forces at manchuria he is busy drilling them the chinese govern imenes offer of a large salary to europeans who would take charge of the chinese trompa haa been responded to by germans who being adaven do not care even if their own government declares its neutrality when the japanese detachment was surprised as it was crossing the bridge leading to on alu morning of july and hesitated under the fire of the ambush captain mat daomi of the twenty first regi anent rushed at their head and encouraged them to fight they broke through adue chinese but the gallant captain wis shot dead tho first victim of the battle of Sei kwan it was a native of kumamoto lie was versed in chinese literature in he entered tho staff college in aoltia and fought as a cadet during tho katsuma fa tsuma rebellion of 1877 he received decoration for his gallantry during the ar he was only 40 years of age THE CHINESE ARMY quipped badly paid and Off leered by corrupt mandarin san cal sept 10 china has its bibe books bays a correspondent of the new york sun the sameal other cirii iced power these show any her batal lions V the bands of the iea her soldiery to t counted by millions her equipments to be appended and complete bat the figures of mill tary strength in a blue book exaggerated and are contra vastly are consular reports of the dieted by the din erent powers and abb statements of observant travelers visited abe Jert ding critics of the land at least one bait the entire grown male population ia liable to military giuly this is one of the relice of the manchu conquest of china in the century at that time the tartar troops were arranged accordine accord lne to banners where nowadays they are divided into divisions and brigades from this fact they took the a of bannermon Bann ermen which from motives of imperial policy las been preserved ever since the war was not as is too frequently jaup posed a struggle between two nation the one chinese and the other tartar at was really between decaying decay inc and dynasty the on the one isido and on the other all ita bee domestic and foreign abo victorious opposition wae by the manchee Man chue who have reigned over rince this will explain why the original bannermon Bann ermen were chinese and mongol as well as in nationality in honor of their descendants should enjoy exclusively forever the privilege of being members of the imperial banner borce two centuries and more flayo witnessed these descendants in numbers until they are now eaid to aggregate potential warriors and it may be added ich perfect truth not actual ones second in point of numbers and even in military efficiency ie the army of the green standard which is provincial rather than imperial in character its muster roll is anywhere between and third and more important than the two preceding combined is the brave or irregular soldier he constitutes at least two thirds of the actual soldiery of tho empire ho enlists and is discharged AS frequently as a hired till and has a knowledge of drill and firearms scarcely on a par with that of a western boy in his first year at school an american in china met one a boatman by vocation who had dierman oft and on twenty years in that period he had carried a spear ft polo ax a shield and a banner but had never handled much less discharged run of any sort the american met othero who had carried a musket five years but did not know that it should be borne in any way different from a cane or a fishing pole the fourth class the soldiers who have been trained and drilled by europeans they are more numerous than is popularly supposed up to the rebellion european tactics and were either unknown or despised by the literati of the flowery empire the remarkable success of general gordon and his cores of british and american free lances called attention even from the sleepiest mandarin to the superiority of christian modes of warfare the impression then made has never been forgotten and has borne truit in many fields european officers have been acting as teachers to the raw levies of china ever since in the rebellion at least men were drilled to a greater or less extent and of these a quarter baill survive who can do military service the european teachers in the past twenty years have trained thousands more who can go through tho manual of arms as well as any corresponding body of men in europe this movement has not been a general one it represents ilie energy and progressive gres sive tendencies of only a few of the great leaders of the empire in the north the premier li hung bhang nas dono his utmost to develop the military strength of his country at the present time he has an army of drilled and equipped according to the latest ideas ot warfare the veterans who once served him number at least and could readily be marshaled into a powerful army the real army of china is comparatively a email and insignificant power A late return from the eighteen provinces published in the aben pao ing chinese newspaper places bar of the troops in actual bervice eer vice including sick men men on leave details and soldiers on garrison and frontier duty at men the Kwang pao the leading chinese paper in canton dispute these figures saying that they are the same as have annually appeared for twenty years and that the actual number of men under arms of all borts in the eighteen provinces is about of this army whatever may be its actual number not more than have received european training and not more than are armed and equipped in proper fashion this errs if at all in favor of the flowery empire the tendency of careful observers Is toward a lower total they base their calculations upon what they see at the various ports along the coast thus for example at woosung Wo near shanghai the soldiers have modern rifles of some sort but keep them locked up and drill with old fashioned muskets at ning po a battalion of braves some in number practices with bows and arrows at camusi and kc blung tha troops are provided with discarded winchesters and springfield muskets of the 1850 type with this body of enforced re by about of a second class china will do her lighting her men are brave patient and loag buffering they are wiry strong and active they can do an immense amount of work and endure inordinate privations upon what seems a ridiculously small amount of rice and vegetables As to a medical department a com miBs ariet as an organization for transportation por tation and locomotion the chinese military system is pitiably deficient there s no medical department and not even a provision for medicines and surgical appliances li hung chang is said to bava two surgeons in his army in the north and li han chang one in that of quang tung with the few physicians attached to the naval squadron equa dron are all there are to look after the armies and navies of the country in war times ricci generals and mandarine often if not generally carry a dictos with them very much as chev take a valet or a cook but these followers of know nothing of anatomy surgery chemistry and pathology they are good bone setters they chow edill in treating boils pimples corns bunions warts and prickly heat chev are quite successful at times with cholera borbus neuralgia gout rheumatism and affections of the bladder and intestines but beyond thia they know nothing in cabes of gunshot wounds the mon golian practice is to leave the alone until the hurt declares its character 1 e whether mortal or not in such little or nothing is left to the doctor there ia no euch thing as an army hospital in china or is the any better condition than the medical service the victorious danchus of years ago lived oi the people they conquered why should not their descendants who inherit their glory power and courage do the same thing such is alie simple principle upon which the army is run even today in a camp or garrison the cutler and cook are conspicuous by their absence the goldiere eol diere form into groups or knots 0 from three to ten men each of which does its own bompio cooking borne eitnie they get their rice from the 0 ficere sometimes froni the general and they buy it themselves and locomotion are perpetual puzzled to chinese generals the government own no troop ships and baa no office or bureau which looks after the matter A regiment in kow la ordered to proceed at once to miles down the yang tee river the commander after a week of deep thought U st tries to impress a steamer owned by chinese falling in this he griea to charter a or ocean steamer of this proving bo bolzer enough junks to accommodate hie troops and then floats and down stream to bis destination if the supply of bunks has run short he calmly waits until fortune or some powerful friend in the neighborhood secures him the necessary craft when it comes to marching cross country the progress ol 01 a chinese army border upon the ridiculous the general and the staff officers go in heavy sedan chairs carried by tour six or eiehl coolies the chair is well furnished and allows its occupant to sleep and eat read and write it moves atthe rate of four miles an hour in smooth country and two or three in rough atie evils described are bad enouch but taken together they are compared with the corruption and peculation which runs through military as well as all official life excepting the small army under the personal li hung there is not a branch of the service nor a command however small but what is undermined and rotten with dishonesty the position of which is admiral aad generalissimo combined hae attached to it a salary of about a year but its value ranges from to a year according to the district where the post is situated from the down card the same ominous discrepancy between calary and income is universal nowhere is human ingenuity better exhibited than in the thousand and one ways in which the otate and individual are defrauded to enrich the military officeholder office holder A draws pay for live regiments when he has four a colonel for ten companies when be has eight a captain for soldiers when lie has fifty in is a brigade of cavalry on paper there are actually twenty men mounted on ponies who are detailed on the courier postoffice post office in ia a huge Krup said to have cost it is really a quaker eun handsomely carved from wood and painted to resemble metal |