March, 20, 1905.).
of possible attack by hidden explosives ; against which triple iron is no better pro- tection than the old wooden walls;
W88.
EPILOGUE OF THE WAR,
(Daily Press 14th March) KUROPATKIN is beaten. Bussia is beaten. In April the war will be over. It is a safer prophecy, that, than any racing "tip" ever The Russian general's messages to his Emperor have come down to the level of his Liaoyang despatch, or lower; and this time there are no piqued war correspondents to soften defeat, by praising his strategy, and belittling the work of his conquer rs. He has been outflanked and surrounded; and by way of atoning for the absence of Mr. BENNET BURLEIGH And Co., he has explained how by extraordinary measures Ire has extricated his army from a highly langerous position. What those extra- ordinarily heroic steps must have been is made apparent in the Japanese official de- spatch published in this issue, which we have Englished and put into tabulated form. The original copy (in part) thus refers to the things General KUROPATKIN left behind him in the Shabo débâcle :---
2 ensigns, sixty guns, sixty thous. and rifles, 150 ammunition wagons, 1,000 army wagons, two hundred thousand shells, twentyfive million shots of rifles, grains of 74,000 bushels, materials of the light railway for 46 miles, 300 wagons of the light railway, 2,000 borses, maps full in 28 Chinese carts, clothinge full in over 1,000 Chinese carts, bread of one million portions, fuel of 150 million pounds, horse
allowance of 223 thousand bushels and 125 thousand pounds of hay.”
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
| made. General KUROPATKIN's tactical skill seems to be admitted: it may perhaps have been that he was not properly backed up by his officers. The last news from Port Arthur prepared us to believe almost anything derogatory to the average Russian officer. There is also the advantage of "momentum" to the Japanese. A moving body impacting a body at rest inflicts more damage than it receives; other things being equal, offence is better than defence. Whatever the causes, ample explanations of which will be forthcoming by-and-by, there is no doubt of the present state of things. It is too serious to be described as luring 'em on." The Russian eagles are in flight; the prestige and power of the TSAE's army are gone. There seems no longer any hope of that one victory which was to save the Russian "face," and make overtures possible. What will be done now? We do not think it likely that Russia will sue as a fallen foe; nor that her authorities will formally agree to all the Japanese stipulations. History tells of wars that closed without peace treaties. The Russo-Japanese War promises to make another in that list. The war will be over just because there will be no more fighting.
The remnants of Russia's great army may linger on their own side of the rubicon, to regain prestige in the way that a small boy, driven from the field, does by shaking his fist at the boy who licked him; and Japan, having done what she set out to do, will stay proceedings. International intervn- tion will do the rest. The boy on the Siberian side of the fence may shake his fist as much as he likes, an it relieves his feel nga; but he cannot return. The Powers must and will see to that.
AUSTRALIA'S EXTERNAL TRADE.
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ав
Twenty years ago it was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain goods direct from the continent of Europe or the eastern sea- board of the United States; now there is fortnightly communication with Hamburg and Bremerhaven by a line subsidised by the German Imperial Government, and with Marseilles, Havre, and Dunkirk by the Messageries Maritimes--a line heavily gub- sidised by the French Republic." The ex- ports display features similar to those revealed by the imports, especially the in- crease of exports to foreign countries. All this, however, dis not prove that the Commonwealth consumes fewer commodities of British origin; it simply shows that Continental and American trade is now conducted direct with the Commonwealth, instead of through British ports. formerly. Every year steamers of greater tonnage and higher speed are visiting Australian ports, and, says Mr. COGHLAN, " a considerable expansion of commerce must of necessity take place, owing to the new outlets for trade which have been opened up." The principal articles im- ported from the United Kingdom cover an extensive field, the leading values in 1903 being: Piece-goods, £4,377,361 ; apparel and attire, £1,517,637; iron and steel, £1,297,928; machines and machinery, £1,141,591; and manufactures of metal, £1,199,872. The leading imports from British possessions are consid rable; those from New Zea land comprise gold, native pine, cats, butter, cheese, hides, and flax. Imports from India inclide bags and sacks, tea, canvas, and castor oil; from Ceylon, tea; from Canada, flour, agricultural implements, and timber; from Hongkong, sugar and opium; tron Mauritius, sugar; from Ocean Island, gunno; from Fiji, copra; from New Guinea, gold, and from the Straits Settlements, pepper and other spices, tapioca, and kerosene oil. In imports from foreign countries, the The rise and progress of the external trade United States led the way in 1903 with of Australia forms an interesting chapter £6,368,532; Germany following with in the history of the world's commerce. £2,358,558; Netherlands and Java, £847,387; According to the New South Wales Govern France and New Caledonia, £506,667; Bel- ment Statistician, it is larger than that of gium, £341,271; Japan £330,121; Sweden any British possession, India alone excepted, and Norway, £244,172; Italy, £153,787; and, if the transit and re-export trade be and the South Sea Islands, £75,571; the excluded, compares very favourably as re-imports from other countries totalling garda proportion to population with that of £1,432,882: The principal imports were as any other country. In 1903 the recorded follow-United States, boots and shoes, imports were valued at £37,811,471, against food produce, agricultural implements, ma £17,562,960 in 1861. The figures were chinery, metal manufactures, leather, printing higher during several of the intervening paper, kerosene oil, tobacco, tools of trade, years, the volume of imports naturally being vehicles, and timber; Germany, wearing affected by fiscal changes and other causes. apparel, dynamite, candles, fancy goods, The recorded exports have, however, cousis- pianos, machinery, piece-goods, metal manu- tently maintained, with few exceptions, an❘ factures, and manures; France, cream of upward tendency, the values rising from tartar, piece-goods, spirits, and wine; and Is it easy to realise what that £17,399,636 in 1861, to £48,170,164 in Sweden and Norway, timber. Of the means; to mentally grasp such appalling 1903, making the total trade in the latter Australian exports to countries not under figures? It means that the Japanese army, year £85,981,635, as against £34,962,616 the British flag fully 85 per cent. were taken within the last week, has killed or captured in 1861, an increase of £51,019,019, the by France, Germany, the United States, the equivalent (short about five thousand) value per inhabitant in 1903 being £21 and Belgium, a fact which tends to explain of the entire population of Hongkong. 188. 11: The total trade during the last the increasing volume of imports from Picture Queen's Road East at its busiest; three years, £262,702,635, was exceeded those places. imagine every individual thronging the during the same period only by Great Bri- street lying stiff and cold; and even the tain, £808,815,270; Germany £530,981,000, it is insignificant compare with the real America, £503,739,690 ; and France, scene to be witnessed along the banks of the £352,390,440, all the other countries of the Sha river. How was it done? It is not world being each below the Australian much use thinking of the demoralised con- figures, Belgium, with £172,232,000, occu- dition of the Russian rank and file, of their pying the highest place, and Greece, with discouragement by news from home, by £8,601,170, the lowest. "One-third of all previous failures, by lack of the care and goods now imported into Australia," says comforts that their wicked and contemptible Mr. COGHLAN, may be said to be of "superiors” have robbed them of; it is incon- non-British origin, 18 compared with ceivable that twenty-six thousand men would about one-fourth ten years ago. The stand to be shot down without offering the | chief factor in bringing fiercest resistance. We know, in fact, from reports by the Japanese, who have always given full credit for their enemy's gallantry, that a most fierce and obstinate fight was
Let no one smile at the diction of that catalogue. If some members of the Island Empire have yet to acquire a riper ex- perience of the intricacies of our speech, we have to remember that recent events prove how well, how very, very well, they can do other things. They can fight, and no Eur- opean nation can ever again presume to teach them the art or science of the soldier. If this list of trophies be trustworthy, (an it must be ismembered that from the beginning there has been no Japanese official return of captures which subsequent discoveries did not prove to have been conservative, rather than exaggerated), it means that au entrenched Russian army, superior in num- bers, with ample ammunition and stores, commanded by an officer whose military talents all have agreed to praise, has been put to rout. Twenty six thousand and five hundred Bassians dead on the ground, and forty thousand living Russian soldiers taken prisoner
Daily Press, 15th March.
about the
change is undoubtedly the establish ment of direct and rapid communication between Germany, France, Belgium, Japan, the United States, and the Commonwealth.
|
THE POWERS AND CHINA.
(Daily Press, 16th Marcb.) One good effect may be looked for from recent events in these parts, namely, that of defining more accurately the policy of Foreign Nations, and more especially of Great Britain, with respect to China and the Far East. British policy has been very freely criticised for mady years past, but it must be confessed that such criticism has been in the main directed
against what was in itself not very definite or very distinctly declared. In *general terms British policy has been stated to be the preservation of her Treaty rights and
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