NEWS FROM THE NORTH
The Viceroy[10] arrived in Arthur and assumed command of the fleet
on April 14. Evidently anxious to ascertain what impression had been
made by the death of Admiral Makharoff and the destruction of the
_Petropalovsk_, the Japanese showed up again at 9 a.m. on the 15th, the
approach of the fleet creating quite a flutter amongst the inhabitants.
We all got nervous, and prepared for a fourth bombardment. Steaming
towards Liao-tieh-shan, the fleet opened fire on the seaward defences,
concentrating on the batteries on Tiger's Tail and the narrows. Our
batteries and ships, which were lying in the inner Roads, replied
energetically, and very luckily, with indirect fire. The bombardment
continued at intervals till lunch-time, and was, from the Japanese
point of view, fruitless. After this the Viceroy gave orders for the
sea near Liao-tieh-shan to be at once mined. Admiral Loschinsky had,
some time before, reported to the late Admiral Makharoff the necessity
of mining Arthur and Petsiwo where a landing was possible, but the
latter was exceedingly sceptical as to the value of mines, for the
same reasons as his predecessor had been. It had only been after the
bombardment of March 10 and 24 that Loschinsky was ordered to mine the
southern shore of Liao-tieh-shan.
We now got some news from the north, and heard that a disaster had
occurred on the Yalu. We became convinced that Arthur would be cut
off and that the enemy were preparing to transport troops for a
landing. There were continual rumours also that they would make another
desperate attempt to block the entrance to the harbour. Though great
progress was made on the arming and fortifying of the Fortress itself,
on the position at Kinchou, owing to the insufficiency of men, of
building materials, and to the incomprehensible apathy of the Officers
Commanding the District, little was done. Stössel sat in Port Arthur,
writing orders and interfering with Smirnoff, and left the Kinchou
position entirely to other hands.
The state of affairs there was incredible. Colonel Tretiakoff,
commanding the 5th East Siberian Rifle Regiment, was appointed to
command the position, but was given no power. Whenever he asked for
guns and ammunition for the weakly armed position, for engineers,
labour, and building materials to repair the unserviceable batteries,
or pointed out the necessity for constructing bomb-proofs, and urged
that new positions on the hills might be fortified, the General would
fly into a passion and shout: 'Traitors! all traitors! Who says that
Kinchou is badly fortified? The Japanese will never take it. I will
destroy their whole army if they only dare to land. We all know they
are fools, but they will never send a large force here, and so weaken
their main army.' Being convinced of the futility of dealing with
the General, Tretiakoff, himself a 'sapper,' together with another
engineer officer, Schwartz, set to work with his regiment to try and
get the place into order. Although he continued, at every convenient
opportunity, to point out the unsatisfactory state of the position
against which the first blow of the besieging army must fall, not only
was he not given more labour, materials, or engineers, but those that
he did have were taken away from him. This sounds impossible, but is
literally true.
Amongst the large number of men now employed on the works there was
naturally a proportion of undesirables and the Commandant being anxious
lest the results of the work and the plans of the newly-created
fortifications should be communicated to the Japanese, ordered a
service of police gendarmes to be organized, under which were to be all
the railway, town and gendarme police, Captain Prince Mickeladsey was
in charge. Strict watch was now kept over the Chinese, and the Japanese
knew nothing of what was going on in the Fortress. On June 10, however,
Prince Mickeladsey, with all his gendarmes, was sent by Stössel to the
other side of Liao-tieh-shan, without the right of entering Arthur, and
the Fortress being left without a gendarmerie, offered grand scope for
spies. But more of this later.
After the sinking of the _Petropalovsk_ the Japanese came almost every
night into the outer Roads and laid mines Rarely a night passed without
something happening: either destroyers or mine-layers always appeared,
and the searchlights used to pick up these gallant craft, which were
then shelled by the whole front. Later the enemy became more cunning,
sending junks in front of the destroyers to draw fire, thus enabling
the destroyers to lay mines with impunity. The navy had hard work
from now, fishing for mines, and ships were told off daily for what
could not but be a most dangerous duty. The continual night duty also
was most harassing, and the gunners--officers and men--were becoming
exhausted.
While the isolation of Arthur came closer and closer, little was being
done by the Officer Commanding the District as regards providing the
Fortress with the necessary reserve of war materials, supplies, and
hospital appliances, and poor progress was being made in requisitioning
slaughter cattle and horses, for Stössel paid no sort of attention to
these points. This was perhaps, after all, logical, as he would not
admit of the possibility of the isolation of the town. He informed
the Commander-in-Chief that he wanted nothing--neither troops nor
ammunition. Although 50,000 field troops at least were essential for a
successful defence of the Fortress, and we had less than this number,
men were actually sent from us to the north. As an instance of what
happened, take this order, No. 328, of May 4:
'The following details, whose departure for Liao-yang has been
reported, are struck off the strength of the garrison from this date:
One officer and 134 men from the 3rd Reserve Battalion and 250 men of
the 7th Reserve Battalion.'
In this case, curiously enough, the men never actually went. After
the Battle of the Yalu, in which the 3rd Division suffered heavily,
reserves were ordered to be sent from the Fortress to replace
casualties. The Commandant obeyed the order, and despatched the
required number of men within twenty-four hours. They were wanted for
active service, and at once, and were sent off in 'serviceable'--not in
'first-year'--tunics. After their departure a telegram was received:
'Why have the reserve men not been supplied with first-year tunics?
They have been sent back.'
And back came more than 300 men a distance of 200 miles! Why? For
better coats! The Commandant sent for the Fortress Intendant, who
explained that, according to the local military regulations, reserve
men were not supplied with first-year tunics, and that none were in
store for them. Tunics were, therefore, issued from the Fortress
Artillery stores, refitted, and the men again sent off to the front,
and this actually on the day before the communications were cut, when
the Commandant had implored that every available waggon might be used
to bring into the Fortress ammunition, guns, hospital appliances,
medicines, etc. But though the men were actually in the train, they
never reached their destination, for by then the line had been cut.
'It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good,' and we profited to the
extent of a few hundred more defenders.
The supply problem also became more acute. As the reserve of live stock
was so small, for reasons already given, preserved rations were issued;
but not only was the reserve of the latter not kept up as issued,
but tons of preserved stuff were still allowed to be exported by the
merchants, who held large stocks. As regards the collection of live
stock, the position was more hopeless than ever. The Civil Commissary
pointed out that requisitioning for cattle should commence on the
furthest point from Port Arthur--in the country bordering on Manchuria,
and work inwards--so as to make it impossible for the Chinese to
drive away their cattle in that direction. The Officer Commanding the
District, however, decided that the requisitions were to be served
first in the sections nearest Arthur. As might have been expected,
the Chinese, who are no fools, at once began to drive their cattle
northwards. The district officers, under-staffed as they were, could
only stop this to a very small extent, for, besides driving them, the
Chinese resorted to loading cattle on junks and taking them to Chifu.
And so May arrived.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 10: Alexeieff.]