From tae ' Jaras Dalny Mat."
The naval officers who escaped to Chefoo in the fugitive destroyers give (" Asabi's" correspondence) @ most pitiful account of the state of affairs in Port Arthur imme diately prior to the. surrender. They say that not only provisions but also ammunition had been exhausted. The r last supply of ammunition was expended in the defence of Erhlungs'an and Sungshushao For three months they had subsisted on rice and vegetb'es, the allowance of the Intter being wretchedly small during the last month. It wasa mere ruse when celebrated meeting with Jap-nese officers during the armistice, the Russ'ans waded champagne and brandy as well as various edibles. These delicacies were the last of the kind in their possession, and their hope waa that by lavish generosity they would deceive the Japanese and weaken the latter's attacks, But the ruse failed completely. The Japanese seemed to develop tly increasing vigour, whereas the Russians, decimated by disease and by wounds, were so weary that even to speak became an effort to them. At the final assault on Erhlungshan they fou bt for all they were worth, but the Japanese swept in like an irresistible wave. Nothing could check them and of 500 Russian soldiers in the casemated gallery, not one escaped alive. The shower of projectiles was apthe fortress, except the not a yard of the streets in the two tow were safe. Even the wounded men were so terrified that they crept out of the hospitals and perished with cold. Golden Hill had not "round of ammunition left, and though some preparations had been made at Liaotishan, the nature of the rendered resistance there hopeless. Nothing dispirited the garrison more than the death of Kondrachenko, who fell in the battle at High Hill, That battle was really t e beginning of the end. After it the garrison found themselves in miserable atrais. They! mustered only 5,000 men in all, and of those the great majority could hardly mevs their weary legs ally a grand council of war was There were present 1, Took, Rothehinsky, Malakoff, Smiviloff, and oth rs. All were for sure nder except Stoesse!. He dashed his fist upon the table and swore that nothing should induce him to capitulate. When the rest pointed out to him that th y had no men to fight and no ammunition to fight with, he cried that they, ths officers, must go out with their swords followed by as many brave hearts as rewaine!, and must fall fighting. But his mood of fury was at length appeased. He appreciated that further resistance meant useless suicide, and the application for a conference followed. 3 Is is manifest from the Innguage of these officers that the quality of the Japanese attacks had fully d-monstrated the hopelessness of opposing them. The garrison had not only lost strength, but was morally debilitated also. Is it cedible, however, that the soldiers wer" fed on tice only for three months, and that scarcely a round of ammunition remained after siege of only four months? If these things be even approximately true, Russian mismanagement must have been colossal. Yet it was loudly proclaimed when the war commenced that the fortress was farnished with ammunition for five years and proves ons for two; it had a third of year to make up its deficiencies before the Japanese landed on Liaotung; it had factories for manufacturing ammunition, and murly ships ran the blockade between June and December. It will be better to wait for the Japanese official accounts before forming any conclusion about the|$> condition of the fortress at the moment of surrender!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.