The Vice-Minister of War for Japan (Major-General Ishimoto) gave a most interesting lecture on the movements leading up to and following the crossing of the Yalu before the Imperial Maritime Association at Tokio. We take the following summary from the " Japan Times"
The Vice-Minister of War in his speech said that fine weather favoured the Japanese army during the operations on May Ist, but later on that day, when the fighting had finished, rain began to fall, Rain after a battle was proverbial. The rain after the Yalu battle cleansed the sir of the foul odours and smoke, and was highly sanitary from a medical point of view. The weather, however, cleared up at noon the following day. Referring to the topographical features of the scene of the operations, Major-General Ishimoto drew the attention of his audience to the fact that the Yalu was about two miles wide, with islands lying in it. At.this time of the year the river was so swollen that many of the sandbanks were concealed under water. The enemy availed himself of this advantage, and was determined to hold his position at Kiulienchéng. This determin. ation was testified to by his con. struction of strong fortifications there and his unparalleled assiduity in re. connoitring the neighbourhood. Our force consisted of three the speaker could not say that every
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.