the Secretary of State, and still more unnecessary to publish this censure. It is, however, gratifying to find that his services as a whole have been acknowledged by his appointment as a K.C.S.I.

So far the treaty has been fully observed by the Tibetans, and the arrangements made for carrying it out have worked smoothly. There have been, especially towards the close of 1905, rumours of the projected return of the Dalai Lama, but nothing definite could be stated as to his movements. In the account of the signing of the treaty at Lhasa in September, 1904, it was stated that the Chinese Amban had declared himself unable to sign without orders from Pekin. Negotiations were commenced between the British and Chinese Governments, and a Chinese High Commissioner with a suite of fourteen persons arrived in Calcutta in February, 1905. He left later in the year, but nothing was made known as to the result of his mission.

VII. SIAM.

By the close of 1904, France had been placed in possession of the tracts ceded to her by the new Convention, and in return she restored Chantabun to Siam at the beginning of 1905. The ceremony was made the occasion of an exchange of courtesies between the French and Siamese officials, and of expressions of mutual good-will for the future. So far these professions appear to have been made good; at any rate no hitch in carrying out the other provisions of the Convention, or any new friction between the two countries, has been reported during 1905.

The report published by Mr. Williamson, the Financial Adviser of the Siamese Government, gives a most satisfactory account of the general condition of the country. The Revenue had more than doubled during the last eight years, and was now close on 3,000,000l. sterling a year, and there was a balance of 1,250,000l. in the Treasury. Not only had this result been obtained without any increase in the old taxes or the imposition of new ones, but the Government has been able to construct out of current revenue 285 miles of railway at a cost of nearly 2,000,000l. sterling. It was, however, felt that if the work of general improvement was to be satisfactorily carried out the policy of constructing productive works out of Revenue could no longer be maintained, and it was determined to raise a loan of 1,000,000l. sterling, which will be Siam's first public debt. The loan was to bear 5 per cent. interest, and to be redeemable in thirty years, the Government reserving to itself the right of redeeming it earlier if it should think fit.

The Siamese Government has been reproached with the fact that a very large portion of its Revenue, more than 443,000l., is derived from gambling farms, and it has now determined to abolish these entirely in the course of three years. Eighty

eight of them were to be abolished during the current financial year, and the loss entailed by this step was estimated at 131,000l. It was, however, hoped that this would be more than made good by an increase in the Revenue derived from land. A cadastral survey had been completed, and an excellent system for the registration of title-deeds had been introduced. There had already been a large increase in cultivation, and there was every prospect of a still greater one in future.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FAR EAST.

I. RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.

CHARLES ROE.

FOLLOWING on the capture by the Japanese in December of positions and forts which dominated Port Arthur, the surrender of the fortress on January 1 was regarded at first as a natural and inevitable result. But this feeling was somewhat modified when, after the terms of capitulation had been signed, it was learnt that apart from 15,000 to 16,000 men in hospital, there were still in the fighting line some 24,000 men and officers, with ample guns, ammunition and stores, for maintaining the defence for several months. The list of material captured included fiftynine permanent forts, 546 guns, 35,253 rifles, 2,250,000 rounds of small arm ammunition, and an immense quantity of all kinds of naval, military, and other stores. During the negotiations for surrender, the Sevastopol battleship, to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy, was sunk by her captain in deep water outside the port, and six torpedo-boat destroyers escaped to Chefoo and Kiaochou. But the rest of the fleet remained to swell the list of Japanese captures by four battleships, two cruisers, fourteen gunboats and torpedo boats, and some fifty steam launches. The destruction wrought in the town and fort by the bombardment was found to be much less than had been expected, and the condition of the vessels sunk in the harbour warranted a hope, which was afterwards realised, of being able to raise and repair them in spite of the damage which they had received both from hostile fire and with a view to render them useless to the Japanese when captured.

Preparations were quickly made for the transport of the prisoners to Japan, whither a large number of officers elected to accompany their men, though they had the option of returning to Russia on parole. The sanitation of the place and the reconstruction of the fortifications were taken in hand simultaneously, and by the end of January four divisions of the army which had been fighting continuously for months against Port Arthur were set free to join Marshal Oyama's army to the north of Liao-yang.

The severity of the winter had for a long time confined the two armies between Mukden and Liao-yang to their trenches and underground shelters, but in January General Mistchenko, with a mounted force of some 6,000 men and six batteries of light artillery, made a raid southwards, destroying a portion of the line near Hai-cheng and reaching the Chinese town of Newchwang on January 12. But failure to follow up his success promptly allowed the Japanese time to repair the railroad and send troops to reinforce the slender garrison which protected their commissariat stores at Niu-chia-tun, so that an attack made on this place was repulsed. In his retirement or retreat Mistchenko suffered considerable loss and was said to have been forced to cross the Liao River, which had been regarded by both combatants as forming the boundary of military operations. This encroachment on neutral territory formed a useful precedent for Japanese action later on. Towards the end of January General Gripenberg, who was in command of the Second Manchurian Army, on the right, received orders to ascertain the strength of the Japanese forces in that quarter, and on January 25, with seven divisions, he began an attack on the Japanese left under General Oku, in the angle between the Hun and Tai-tse Rivers. The attack was made with great vigour and the Japanese were driven out of their fortified positions at Hei-kou-tai. Ineffectual attempts were made to regain the position, and a heavy fall of snow interfered with reinforcements being brought up to support the Eighth division, which with a brigade of cavalry had had to bear this unequal contest. At length, on January 28, the Fifth division succeeded in forcing its way through the snow and in a desperate attack drove the Russian right back towards the Hun and recovered the positions facing Sandi-pu (Chen-chieh-tai). General Gripen berg, finding that he received no support, was compelled to retire, after (as he thought) having victory in his hands. In his disgust at the lack of co-operation he resigned his command, and left for St. Petersburg to complain of General Kuropatkin's treatment of him. The Russian losses in this engagement amounted to some 20,000 men, out of a force of 85,000 men. Neither Kaulbars' army, in the centre, nor Linievitch's, on the left, took much part in the battle, the issue of which might, in the opinion of many, have been very different, if Gripenberg's temporary success had been followed by a general engagement. The Japanese losses were estimated at 9,000 killed and wounded.

While Mistchenko's army was on its way south to Newchwang, a small Japanese body of cavalry had crossed the Hun River and penetrated far to the rear of the Russian army. Its destruction in February of a railway bridge north of Changchun and capture of a gun led to the withdrawal of part of the Russian cavalry in the Liao Valley in its pursuit, and thus facilitated the great movement which Marshal Oyama was planning.

The Russian force now numbered over 300,000 men, and consisted of the First Manchurian Army under Linievitch on the left, extending from Sin-chin-tun, on the extreme left, to Putiloff Hill; Bilderling's (the Third Army), which reached from Putiloff Hill across the railroad and Sha River; and Kaulbars' (First) Army in the Hun Valley, and beyond, where Rennen Kampf's cavalry protected his right. The Japanese army with Kuroki on the right, Nodzu in the centre, and Oku on the left, was now strengthened by Nogi's (Third) Army from Port Arthur and the Fifth Army under General Kawamura. A Japanese bombardment of Putiloff Hill with siege guns on February 12, and an attempt by Russian cavalry on the 17th to turn Oku's left were followed on the 19th by Kawamura on the Japanese extreme right moving northwards on the road towards Tita, and on the 22nd by a gallant attack on Ching-ho-cheng, a fortified position held by General Alexeieff on the Tai-tse River. This was carried on the 23rd in spite of immense difficulties, and General Kuropatkin, apprehending that the weight of the Japanese attack would be delivered on his left, withdrew the First Siberian Army Corps from his right to strengthen his left. Kuroki confirmed this belief by following up the Russians. Nodzu in the centre continued to maintain a heavy artillery fire on the Russian positions, but retained his position, while Oku by repeated attacks between February 27 and March 6 advanced so far as to threaten to turn the Russian right. This movement freed Nogi from observation, and he was able by rapid marches to advance from Oku's rear across the Liao River to Sin-ming-ting (March 1), the rail head to Newchwang and Tientsin. Then swinging round to the right he struck straight for the railroad north of Mukden. Meanwhile Kuroki's force had been hung up east of Kao-tu-ling, where the Russians were maintaining a strong defence in the mountains. But the desperate nature of things on Kuropatkin's right where Oku was vigorously pressing forward to get in touch with Nogi led Kuropatkin to order Alexeieff to fall back and to send the First Siberian Army Corps back to support Kaulbars near Mukden. Nodzu in the centre now drove home a strong attack which forced the Russians on to the Hun River. The railway behind Mukden was cut (March 8) by Nogi and the confusion into which the Russians were thrown prevented their being able to take advantage of the temporary weakness of Oku and Nogi's forces. The confusion soon became universal except on the Russian left, and the Russian retreat was rapidly converted into a rout. Abandoning Mukden (March 9), the Russians, thanks to a blinding dust storm, escaped absolute destruction at the hands of the Japanese, but were unable to make more than a short stand at Tieh-ling (March 17), the strong fortified position which they had prepared, and on March 19 the Japanese occupied Kai-yuan, about seventy miles north of Mukden.

The losses on both sides were enormous. In the three weeks' fighting up to March 12 the Japanese casualties amounted to

over 41,000 men. The Russian losses included 27,700 dead, 40,000 taken prisoners, 110,000 wounded, 66 guns, 62,200 rifles, and an immense store of ammunition and supplies of all kinds. At the same time the Russians lost their supplies of coal from the Fushun mines and the provisions and ammunition which had been forwarded to them over the Chinese railway vid Sinming-ting.

For a time it seemed that the Japanese contemplated pursuing the Russians to Kirin and Kharbin before the latter recovered from their state of exhaustion. But either on account of the difficulty of forwarding supplies or because their original programme did not embrace a movement in force far to the north of Mukden, the Japanese allowed this opportunity to pass and contented themselves with strengthening their position at Mukden and arranging for an advance in force, if necessary, at some future date. The Russians were thus enabled to concentrate their troops to the south of Kirin, whither reinforcements were promptly despatched, which by degrees brought the Russian army up to its previous strength, and General Linievitch, by whom Kuropatkin had been superseded, exerted himself to the utmost to restore the morale of his men.

Meanwhile interest was chiefly centred on the Mongolian frontier, where bodies of Japanese cavalry were apparently making an attempt to outflank the Russian right. In connection with this some amusement was caused by a diplomatic effort on the part of Russia to induce China to advance the frontier of Mongolia eastwards, in order to restrict the movements of the Japanese by the interposition of neutral territory, as both armies had undertaken to regard Mongolia as outside the field of war operations.

The Baltic Fleet had been despatched by the Russian Government, on October 15, from Libau to relieve Port Arthur and retrieve the fortunes of the land forces. After its attack on the Hull fishing fleet off Dogger Bank on October 21-22, and a short stay off Tangier, it had separated into two divisions, of which the one, commanded by Admiral Folkersahm, took the Suez Canal route and the other, under Admiral Rozhdestvensky, travelled by the Cape, to meet each other off Madagascar. On arrival there (Jan. 3) they were greeted by the news of the fall of Port Arthur, and while waiting for further orders they learnt of the quasi-annihilation of the Russian Army at Mukden. Nevertheless, while the pursuit of the defeated army was still continuing, Admiral Rozhdestvensky left Nossi Bé on March 17, and with such secrecy that little was known of his movements until he was sighted off Singapore on April 8. On the 12th the fleet arrived at Kam-ranh Bay and waited in Indo-Chinese waters, regardless of the ill-feeling against France which was provoked by this abuse of neutral ports, until the arrival of the Third Baltic Squadron under Admiral Nebogatoff, soon after which the whole fleet left (May 14) for the north.