Directory_and_Chronicle_1912 — Page 943

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HARBIN

Harbin, the junction of the railways from Irkutsk to Vladivostock, and from Harbin to Kwanchengtze, where it joins the Japanese line to Dalny, is made the seat of a Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs House to control the railway traffic. Millions of money have been spent in building operations at Harbin during the past few years by the Russians, and Harbin has grown in a wonderful manner.

CONSULATES

DIRECTORY

RUSSIA

AMERICAN CONSULATE; Tel. Ad. Amconul

Consul-Lester Maynard

Interpreter William Morton

GREAT BRITAIN

Acting Consul--H. E. Sly Interpreter-S. O. Friede

HELLER, V., Forwarding and Express Agt.;

Tel. Ad: Heller

North China Insurance Co., Ld.

Consul General-N. M. Poppe Vice-Consul-V. K. Nikitine

Deputy Consul

Kouzminsky

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General

Interpreter-I. K. Popoff

M. N.

Do. --P. K. Oussaty Student Interp.-L. A. Bogoslovsky Assistant Interp.-I. S. Popoff Secretary-L. D. Dmitrieff

Asst. Secretaries-T. J. Dorochenko, T. A. Naumenko, T. M. Kovtchenko Chinese Secretary-Liu hui-ching

PORT ARTHUR

順旅 Lu-shun

17

Port Arthur, at the point of the "Regent's sword, or Liaotung Peninsula, was formerly China's chief naval arsenal, but was captured by the Japanese in the war with China in 1894 and its defences and military works destroyed. In 1898, when Russia obtained a lease of Port Arthur and Talienwan she fortified the former, making it into a great naval and military stronghold.

By the time the war between Russia and Japan broke out, an anchorage for battleships had at great cost been provided in the western harbour, and the hills surrounding the harbour had been so strongly fortified that Port Arthur had come to be regarded as an impregnable fortress. It was on the night of February 8th, 1904, that the Japanese squadron under Admiral Togo made its first attack on Port Arthur and succeeded in inflicting substantial injuries to the Russian ships. But the strength of the land defences and the dangers of a mine-strewn channel prevented the Japanese admiral from following up his success. He resolved, as the next best thing, to block the entrance to the harbour, and in this endeavour several old merchant ships and a few score of heroic lives were sacrificed, but none of the attempts proved entirely successful. It was not until May, 1904, that Port Arthur was beseiged by the Japanese land forces under General Nogi, and from then onwards down to the capitulation of the fortress on January 1st, 1905, there were repeated conflicts of a most sanguinary character. When on the 5th December, 1904, the Japanese army, after many unavailing