As was expected, the breach made in the enceinte of the fortress at Port Arthur by the capture of Erhlungshan was followed by the crumbling away of the other forts, and on Sunday evening by General Stéssel's offer to capitulate. Splendidly brave as the Russian garrison is, aad splendidly as it has been protected by the masses of co'icrete and stea! plates at which it seemed that the Japanese guns were hurling their projectiles in vain, that garrison has not been strong enough to check the insidious under ground approach of she indomitable Japanese, and the dynamite mine has destroyed tke defences which laughed at the heaviest shells. Sungshushan, another fort of the first importance, fell on Saturday morning. It seems that rather than low the fort with its guns to fall into the hands of the Japanese who would turn its guns on the Russians as they had done the guns at Erh-Tangshan, the garrison had determined to blow it up, bat were only partially successful, that success, partial as it was, involving the lives! ofa hundred and fifty of the brave defenders, It must have been a terrible moment for the two officers and the hundred and sixty men huddled in the bombproof below the actual fort when the mine was fired, and the scene when the bombproof was opened and the survivors were' taken out by the Japanese demands the pen ofa Bussell or a Forbes. The Japanese military photographers were, no doubt, on the spot, and when their pictures are published, we shall be able to form some idea of the ghastly scene that marked New Year's eve at Port Arthur.
Tt was to be feared that the scene would be repeated as fort after fort succumbed. General Stossel must have been sorely tempted to surrender before, and it does not say much for the humanity of the loving Czar that he has not his General that he has done enough for his own honour and that of his country, and that the continued useless waste of life should now he stopped. But, as a matter-of-fact, though this waste of life on both sides was useless as far as Port Arthur itself was concerned, it was
campaign as a whole. Ev. day useful to general La agg plan of that Pert Arthar held out delayed eighty thousand mien who will go now tke fortress is finally taken, to reinforce Marshal Oyama on the Shaho, It is certain that if General Kuropaskin was really receiving the reinforcements of which we hear so much, he would have attacked Marshal Oyama before Port Arthur fell; as he has.not done so, it is certain that his semi is ieee been FA the past. Itis declared b greatly exaggerated, as it always independent observers that bot sides have s" strongly fortified themselves on the Shaho, that whichever attacks is certain to be repulsed. But Nanshan, Liaoyang, and Port Arthur were all thought impregnable until the Japanese attacked them seriously, and what the Japanese have done they can do again.
As our Tokio correspondent says, the fall of Sungshushan made the surrender of General Stéssel a matter of certainty. The Japanese are nothing if not chivalrous, and that they would give General Stossel, whom they admire as much as the world in general admires their own prowess, the most liberal possible terms, was a foregone conclusion, As we have said before, History will crown besiegers and besieged in Port Arthur with imperishable laurels. Generals Nogi and Stissel have indeed built for themselves and their men a monument more durable than bronze. It has been a fight of giants; a fight between troops who wou'd not be denied and troops who would not. give in until further resistance was impossible. The facts of the siege are striking enough without the exaggerations that have come to us from time to time, mainly from Chefoo. Tokio has shown admirable self-restraint. 'I'he Japanese have borne many disappointments with admirable calmness and dignity, and they may be trusted to show no undue excitement now that the long-hoped-for success hae come.
The flight to Chefoo and Tsingtao in a thick fog of eight Russian torpedo-boat destroyers from Port Arthur, with fugitive soldiers as well as sailors on board, opens a very interesting question. The Chin-, ese and German Governments must make them prisoners if they do not leave the harbours within twenty-i four hours; but will not General Nogi be entitled to say that they are part of Port Arthur, and must be included ju the surrender? It may fairly be presumed that they escaped, knowing that General Stéssel was about to surrender, and it would seem that the Japanese have a right to demand them, China, unfortunately, has shown little disposition or power to adopt or follow any principles in dealing with the thorny questions that her declared neutrality has aroused. She is not merely neutral, but negligible, and it is pitiable to see what ought to be a great nation in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.