THE SURRENDER
The first day of the New Year was drawing to a close when a Russian
officer came riding toward our outposts. A Cossack mounted on a shaggy
pony carried before him a flag of truce. Their appearance at such a
moment not less than the grave looks of the young soldier betokened
business of importance. Halting at some distance from the enemy’s lines
the Cossack sounded a parley, and a Japanese officer whose keen eye had
followed every movement of the strangers went out to meet the envoy of
the besieged fortress. He returned with a letter in his hand, and the
Russian ensign rode back to Port Arthur.
[Illustration: Russian Warship on Fire, Port Arthur.]
New Year’s Day is a Japanese festival, and even in the camp of the
investing army custom held revel. Visits were made and hospitalities
exchanged, while comrades fought their way up Bodai and looked down
from the shattered peak into the quivering heart of the city. None
dreamed that the long struggle was ended, and that the gallant
defenders were preparing to lay down their arms. At dawn a strange
stillness descended upon the narrow peninsula. Under the burden of
silence, hills that for months had been charged with volcanic energies
shrank into mounds of brown earth, and valleys and gorges that had
pulsated with the sound of Titanic combat became mute as the grave.
It was a new land in which we awoke--a land of unnatural silence that
seemed full of portent. What had happened? Was this weird calm the
precursor of a hurricane or was it the end? We wondered as we walked to
the village where General Nogi had his Head-quarters.
“Port Arthur has fallen!”
That was the greeting. Not a trace of exultation! The Staff Officer
might have been announcing a fall in the temperature. “Port Arthur has
fallen!” The words sounded incredible. Even the most hopeful had looked
forward to one more month of sapping and mining, and had seen in his
mind’s eye the last glorious stand of the garrison sworn to make the
fortress its tomb. But the silence was convincing. The end had come
with amazing suddenness, and the walls of the “impregnable fortress”
had fallen, like the walls of Jericho, at the blast of a trumpet.
The letter brought to the Japanese lines under the flag of truce made
known General Stoessel’s decision:
“Having regard to the state of affairs at the seat of war generally,
I find that further resistance in Port Arthur is useless, and with a
view to avoid fruitless loss of life I would like to negotiate for
the capitulation of the fortress. If your Excellency agrees to this
proposal I beg you to appoint delegates to discuss the order and
conditions of surrender, and to name a place where my delegates may
meet them.”
General Nogi received this message at eight o’clock on New Year’s
night. He read it with astonishment, for he, too, believed that the
garrison would not surrender until the last fort had been taken and
the last shot had been fired. Only three days before General Stoessel
had convened a council of naval and military officers of the highest
rank, and had laid before them the true state of affairs. The council
was attended by twenty-two officers, and nineteen of them insisted on
continuing the struggle. Three were in favour of making terms with
the enemy. Among these was Col.--now General--Reiss, Chief of General
Stoessel’s Staff, who feared that if the resistance was prolonged and
the city was carried by assault there would be a repetition of the
incidents of 1894, and the remnant of the garrison would be massacred.
General Reiss was not popular with his comrades, and his fears were
denounced as a slander on a brave foe. The council separated under the
impression that its decision was final and that the conflict would be
continued with vigour.
It was with amazement and consternation that the officers received
orders on New Year’s day to destroy the ships in the harbour and to
blow up one of the forts. General Stoessel had resolved to surrender.
General Nogi knew nothing of this council of war. He was, however,
not ignorant of the fact that since the death of General Kondrachenko
resistance had weakened and dissention was rife among the leaders of
the garrison. Nor did it escape his notice that the proposal to discuss
the terms of capitulation was undated, and had probably been written
some days before. Next morning at four o’clock the answer was sent
to the Russian lines under a flag of truce. General Nogi agreed to
negotiate, and appointed as delegate the Chief of his Staff, General
Kosuke Ijichi, with whom were associated Major Yamaoka, Chief of the
Intelligence Section, Captain Tsunoda, Commander Iwamura, Dr. Ariga
and Mr. Kowazu. The conference was to be held at noon on the second of
January in the village of Suishiyei. “The delegates on both sides are
to be invested with full powers to sign the capitulation, which shall
take place immediately after signing and without waiting for further
approval.”
From camp to camp ran the rumour of this momentous decision, and was
received with shouts of “Banzai!” But the dominant note was relief
rather than exultation. A great burden had been lifted, and men
breathed more freely when they realised that the long struggle was
over, and that Port Arthur had surrendered without a last and bloody
sensation.
Suishiyei was once a prosperous Chinese village between the fort ridges
and the mountains on the North. Twixt the hammer of Japan and the anvil
of Russia it had been pounded into a heap of stones, out of which rose
blackened gables and one solitary group of thatched cottages.
To this ruined and deserted hamlet came the delegates of General
Stoessel and General Nogi. They passed through a broad gateway--which
bore in Japanese characters the legend, “The road to peace”--and
vanished from the gaze of a few casual spectators. Plum Tree
Cottage--named after its owner--was a straw-thatched hovel consisting
of two small rooms, which until a few days before served as a
field hospital. Here the delegates met at noon. General Reiss, who
represented the Russians, rode from Port Arthur with a small escort
of Cossacks, and was accompanied by three colonels, the captain of
the Retvisan, Count Ballascehoff, head of the Red Cross Society, a
lieutenant and a midshipman. General Ijichi and General Reiss having
shaken hands and exchanged compliments, presented their comrades, who
conversed through interpreters. At twenty minutes after one o’clock the
terms of capitulation were handed to General Reiss, who was invited to
remain with his colleagues and to read over the documents. One hour was
allowed for their perusal. Before the Japanese delegates retired to the
adjoining room they were asked if the conditions were final. General
Ijichi replied that they were final, but that he would gladly listen to
any suggestions. The delegates then separated.
The conference was renewed at half past two o’clock, when General Reiss
made several proposals and inquiries. He asked that the soldiers and
sailors might be allowed to return to Russia; that the horses in Port
Arthur should not be handed over to the Japanese; that each officer
should be allowed one orderly; that the buildings of the Red Cross
Society should remain the property of the Society and should not be
changed; that a telegram might be sent to the Czar requesting leave to
accept parole; and that a certain amount of personal baggage should be
permitted to each officer. The battle ships and cruisers, he said, had
been destroyed, and the regimental colours had been burned, so that
none of these could be surrendered.
General Ijichi replied that the soldiers and sailors must be treated
as prisoners of war; that the horses must be handed over; that each
officer would be allowed one orderly; that the buildings of the Red
Cross Society would remain untouched; that a telegram would be sent to
the Czar provided it was written in English; that officers would be
allowed to take with them personal baggage equal in amount to that of
Japanese officers of the same rank.
While these points were under discussion a message arrived by telephone
from General Nogi’s Head-quarters to the effect that a serious fire
had broken out in Port Arthur, and that some deserters from the forts
had passed beyond the enemy’s lines. General Ijichi warmly protested
against such conduct, and threatened to break off negotiations if
there was any further attempt at destruction of property in Port
Arthur. A letter was accordingly written and despatched to General
Stoessel, who immediately took steps to prevent any further acts of
incendiaries. At half past four o’clock the conference ended, and
messages were despatched to General Nogi and General Stoessel asking
for a suspension of hostilities. The armistice began at thirty-five
minutes after four o’clock on the second day of the month; five hours
later a telegram was sent to the Czar, the delegates dined together,
and fair copies of the terms of capitulation were made in English and
Japanese.
The negotiations were conducted in English, the midshipman who
accompanied General Reiss acting as interpreter for the Russians. At
a quarter to ten o’clock on the same night General Reiss and General
Ijichi signed the articles of capitulation, and Port Arthur passed out
of Russian control.
Committees of Russian and Japanese officers were appointed to carry out
the conditions of capitulation, and to attend to details concerning
the persons and properties of residents in the city. On the following
day Captain Tsunoda called upon General Stoessel to invite him to
meet General Nogi, and to inform him of the message sent by the
Mikado commanding that the garrison should be treated with generous
consideration, and that officers should be permitted to retain their
swords.
General Stoessel was anxious to know the whereabouts of General
Kuropatkin, from whom on October the 6th he had a letter saying that
he would soon come to the relief of Port Arthur. Toward the end of the
same month he received another communication to the effect that General
Kuropatkin had made his attempt and failed. Chinese spies none the less
reported that the relieving force was already in the Kinchaw peninsula.
“Where is Kuropatkin?” asked General Stoessel.
Captain Tsunoda replied that he did not know, though he believed him to
be somewhere in the neighbourhood of Mukden.
Thereupon the General took out a map, and pointing to the Sha-ho
remarked that General Kuropatkin must be near that river. “Is it not
so?” he asked.
Captain Tsunoda replied: “Yes. He was defeated by the army of
Field-Marshal Oyama near the Sha-ho, and was compelled to retire after
losing between fifty and sixty thousand men. Russians and Japanese are
now facing one another on the banks of that river.”
General Stoessel’s next inquiry was after the Baltic fleet. Where was
that?
Captain Tsunoda replied that according to newspaper accounts the fleet
had not yet passed the Cape of Good Hope.
At this news General Stoessel looked grave and said with emphasis:
“Now that Port Arthur has fallen it is useless for the Baltic fleet to
come.”
Invited to state what had caused the greatest loss and inconvenience
to the defenders, General Stoessel immediately declared that it was
undoubtedly the shells of the eleven inch howitzers. Since the arrival
of these guns the defence works were practically useless. Speaking of
men the General said that he had strongly opposed General Sakaroff’s
plan of constructing a harbour and dockyard at Dalny before the
fortification of Port Arthur was completed. When the Japanese fleet
attacked in February last he was filled with alarm, as the forts were
only half ready and the garrison was between two and three thousand
men. If the Japanese had known they might have walked into Port Arthur
at that time.
General Kondrachenko was killed by a shell in North Fort. According
to every naval and military officer with whom I have spoken, General
Kondrachenko was the heart and soul of the defence. He was everywhere,
and his influence was felt on all sides. In devising schemes of defence
his ingenuity and energy were unfailing. He was to be found always
in the thick of the fight, yet no detail escaped his vigilance and
his resource, while his industry and his contempt of danger appeared
boundless. With Kondrachenko’s death the story of the brave defence of
the fortress ended. There was none to take his place. General Stoessel
might well speak of him as a hero.
Referring to the origin of the war, General Stoessel declared that
from the first he was opposed to hostilities. “Some people,” he
added, “believe that Admiral Alexieff was the real cause of the war. I
deny it. Alexieff never wanted war. We were both in China during the
Boxer trouble and knew the qualities of the Japanese troops. In that
expedition the lion’s share of the work was done by the Japanese and by
my Third Division.”
The real cause of the war, in General Stoessel’s opinion, was the
ignorance of the Russian people (_sic_), who knew nothing of the
fighting capacity of the Japanese. As for himself, he remarked that
he ought to be in the North with his division. He praised highly the
pluck and patience of the Japanese soldiers. The artillery he did not
consider good at first, though he had since recognised its excellence,
especially in concentrated fire. The General went on to speak of his
own experiences. “I have served in three wars--in the Turkish war as a
captain and Staff officer, in the Boxer expedition, and at Port Arthur.
I have been thrice wounded. This time a splinter of a shell wounded me
slightly on the forehead. I have served my country well, and desire
nothing more than to end my days in the country with the members of my
family.”