THE CITY THAT MADE HISTORY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2670, 27 November 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE CITY THAT MADE HISTORY.

The Japanese are now erecting a meVu-. morial om. Qua.il- Hill, Port Arthur, in * honor of their heroes who died there in the recent war with Russia. This hill is a saddle-shaped elevation, which rises to a height of a thousand or more feet out of the arena of the amphitheatre in which Port Arthur is located. It faces the narrow entrance to the harbor where the Japanese and Russian gunboats showered their shells upon each - "other, and about it may be seen the hills forming the rim of the ain- ' -phitheatre upon which were the fortifications taken one by one by the Japanese during the siege. Quail Hill from now on will be called Monument Hill. It is a fitting site to mark the glorious ' victory of .the soldiers of the Mikado. It overlooks Golden Hill and the Tiger’s Tail, which with their fortifications, protect the harbor entrance, and it is The first elevation to be seen coming in from the sea. /•-

It is right upon its top that the monument is now going up. A great temple of silver grey .granite, it be about three hundred feet high and' will cost almost £40,000. The stone for it is coming by the shipload from Shijnonoseki, Japan, and hundreds of huge granite blocks are now scattered about the harbor and at the foot of the hill. Many of them are a large as a library table, and not a few weigh several tons each. A cable road has been constructed from the harbor to the site of the | monument, and a steam engine drags , up the blocks on low cars. The monument is already about one-, .third completed. The pedestal has been 'finished and the fir.Vfc series of ionic '■columns erected. The scaffolding about the structure can be seen for miles Pori, Arthur, and the monument will command both land and sea. The work is being done by ManehurianChinese, under Japanese overseers. AN IMPRESSIVE* MONUMENT. “I have visited,” says Frank G. Carpenter, in the “Times-Democrat,” “the world’s most famous monuments from the mighty shaft at Wash-.ingto-n, which rises from the base of the Potomac, and the great sarcophagus o! Napoleon in Paris, to the. gigantic boulders on the Rhodesian hills, which mark the grave of Cecil Rhodes, but 1 'have seen nothing so impressive as this. At one' end of the mighty elevation .stands the monument, and at the other ■end, perhaps eight hundred feet distant, is a Shinto shrine of this .same silver "rey granite under which lie the hones of more than 22,000 Japanese heroes who were killed at Port Arthur. The platform upon which the, shrine V stands is reached through a great copu per bronze torii; and at each side of the latter is a granite lantern, like ;iho&e one sees at Nikko and about the other shrines of J Japan; The stone platform must he more.-than one hundred .; ; -feet square, although the shrine itself ‘ is- comparatively small. These two monuments cover the whole t°P of the bill.' They . are readied ,-by— military roads; ' which wind their wav up the mountain, -.and also by steps foy loot, passengers. MEMORABLE BATTLEFIELDS. Come with nie to the foot of the monument and take a bird’s-eye view of -the battlefields of Port Arthur, as they lie here in this quiet year of our Lord, 1909. We are right in the midst of •the amphitheatre in which, for eight months, day and night, went on the greatest gladiatorial show the world has yet known. Just under' u s is the harbor which avus filled with the Russian gunboats; and on its shores arc Ihe old and new towns which were occupied by the soldiers during the siege. On that sea, outside, lay the blockadan" Japanese squadron, sending its ■shrieking shells at the ships and the city. On the hills all about us were Russian soldiers, and on their opposite sides the Japanese armies, crawling and ploughing and tunnelling their .way to the forts. The story of ; how, inch by inch, every bit of the ground was fought over, and how at last, Japan was° successful, has been told in song and story; and you may find it to-day in the books describing the war. 1 doubt, however, Avliether any such story can show the real wonders of the defence and attack; or the heroism of wiboth. bodies of troops. , The country about here is dry ami ' .-thirsty. There is no vegetation except ■.scanty grass, with here and there a bit of scrub oak. The fighting, was all m .the open, and the fortifications had . to !be thrown up out of rock, gravel and disintegrated stone. The tunn * , ®» made by the Japanese were not through earth, but through rock, and in undermining the -forts they: could go but a few feet a day. while overlooking these bills one sees • scores of miles of such trenches. I lie. - work on the embankments reminds you the Great .Chine.se wall, and. the hundred miles and more of military roads the Russians built to reach their -various fortifications impress one with the vast sums which they spent all in vain Their, forts vrere of concrete, re iSowl with iron, and they embrace a a W'a.f'!flhe tort. fl CSpafth^ S e the only work they are domS. » .-Upon those facing the sea They haye As to the other parts of Port thur one may go anywhere, provided !he leaves his camera at hom ; _ re scores of droschkies Avhich were brought in by the Russians, and are now owned by Chinese. These are hauj ed by little Manchurian pomes, and /\hey will take you all over the country A 'lat a shilling an hour. EARTH’S FACE SCARRED. “During my stay here I have visited many of the battlefields, and have - • i 'tramped over the hills where the severXSTghting took. place. The grounds are scarre(f by' iron shot, and the face .o old Mother Earth has been pockmarkeu by the siege. The shells were •throAvn everywhere, and some of them ■went deep- into the ground. As soon as the fighting was over the Chinese bv the thousands swarmed over the londscape and gathered lip every bit or cad and iron in sight, tfiey even dug ' the shells. Often they would find one which had not been exploded, and innocently pound on the cap with ■ rS S result was another big ' bole in the earth, and the + almondeyed diggers scattered over the landscape m pieces. , ■ o ' To-day it is difficult to find laigc -chunks of shell; although there are innumerable bits of iron about the forts, well as all sorts of relics of the Jap- " anese and Russians. There are army buttons -torn caps and coats, and pieces -of the-barbed wire which, charged wit^ .electricity, entangled the soldiers

PORT ARTHUR OF TO-DAY. Poverty takes the place of Luxury.

they climbed the hills and burned /them to death. I saw rotting sandbags and tattered leather coats worn by the Russians here and. there about one of the forts; and I picked up a pocketful of splinters from the shells which, the Japanese had thrown. THE HORRORS OF WAR. The terrors of the siege are. shown by the museum in Port Arthur. The Government has collected relics from the various battlefields and placed them in a big building outside the old town. They have made models of the forts, which show the devilish ingenuity that both the Japanese and Russians used in destroying one another. There are great; coils of the. barbed wire which -was scattered over, the hillsides. The wire was connected with powerful batteries inside the fortifications, and such soldiers as blundered against it in the dark were sure to be killed. There were twenty kinds of hand. ; grenades, filled with’ nitroglycerine. They looked like miners’ lamps, but when thrown they really lit the way to death. The Japanese had wooden guns, lOin or 12in in diameter, which they carried with them into the trenches. Their projectiles for these wore cans of shimose powder holding from a pint to two quarts, and they caused terrible destruction. They had also squares of deal boards which were buried a few inches below the. surface. Attached to these were tubes of acids so connected by wires that they exploded as the troops stepped on the hoards, throwing a whole company into the air. Here also are the mines which were used on land and sea. These are acornshaped iron shells as big as a bushel basket, which would blow up a ship at sea or destroy a company or a regiment upon land. The museum lias every kind of shell, from some as high as one’s shoulder down to little fellows the size of your finger. It lias Japanese flags which the Russians used to entice their enemies within reach- of their guns, and a Japanese kite which, they used to test the wind before sending up their balloons. It has pieces of silk which they employed during the latter part of the siege to .make sandbags, and steel picks of all kinds, from new ones, fresh from the stores, down to some which are worn to the length of one’s thumb by digging the rocks in the fort tunnels. A SIDELIGHT ON THE CONFLICT. Much of the fighting was hand to hand. In tunnelling into the forts the Japanese and the Russians were often close to one another, and they remained so for days, separated only by ramparts of .sandbags. As I looked at one of the forts a Japanese officer pointed out a tunnel in which he said he had fought for several days with his fellows the Russians being on the-other side of the wall, :BO close that the troops ooiild hear on© a-nother. talk. Said th© ; officer: “We joked with each other, using one of our men as an interpreter, and we even passed brandy and tobacco over the sandbags,” . . : “How did the .Russians fight?”' I asked. “They fought bravely, but the odds were against them in that their common soldiers did not know what they wer© fighting for. They did not care for Manchuria, and they had no faith in their Emperor. Every Japanese esteemed it an honor, to die for his country, and the most of ns would rather have died than'been defeated.” ROOSEVELT A JAPANESE IDOL. “But would not the Russians have beaten you if the war had gone on much longer?” “I do not know,” was the reply. “We were in a bad way when the hostilities were suspended. Our money was almost used up, and it is doubtful if we could have kept on fighting. Indeed,' we owe everything to your I resident Roosevelt. It was his offer of peace that saved us, and I can tell you we appreciate his work at that tune. The Japanese worship him. and it he ever visits Japan we will just kill uun with kindness in showing our gratitude.” , Just here I would say that I have heard many such expressions concernin" Theodore Roosevelt. He is a heroto°the Japanese, and they cannot speak of him too highly. His biographies, printed in their language, have been sold by the thousands, and even the school children know all about him. During a call upon Prince Ito a few months ago his Excellency referred to Mr Roosevelt in the highest terms. He said: —“Theodore lldpseyelt is- a friend; of Japan, and we honor him much. ■ The Prince thereupon ordered his. servant to bring in a photograph oLtlie ex-president. It . was origin ally ,of ...ca-binet-size, which Mr Roosevelt to Prince Ito with his autograph at tho foot conveying his regards. The photograph had been enlarged to more than life size, and it was beautifully framed. Prince Ito ordered it placed on a chair facing us, so that our exPresident ..seemed to be a part of the interview.'

A STRICKEN CITY. The Port Arthur of to-day makes me think of one of the inflated towns of Western America after its boorn had exploded. Just before the war began the Russians were preparing to make it one of the finest cities in Asia. They had erected enormous buildings tor their officials, and were Putting up residences to correspond. Merchants and other private citizens were doing likewise. New structures were going up every where,. and houses of fifty and sixty rooms were being erected. In the new town, which formed the Russian residence section, a dozen or so of such buildings, with' the scaffolding about them are still to be seen. Some are finished to the roofs, and others to the first floors only. Tfiey have not been touched since the war, and are g°in 0 to ruin. . . , Such residences as were completed can now be rented for a pound or so a month. Just opposite my hotel stands a brick house of three storeys which contaihs fifty rooms It probably cost £15,000 to build, and it could be rented to-day for £lO a month. Adjoining it is another residence winch is still larger. It is occupied at a rental of £ . On the hill behind .me are the foundations of a Russian cathedral, "Inch, li completed, would be as large as any church building in the United &tates. It Avas about ready for the walls when the war occurred, and it ,W as stopped for ever. A new hotel which had been erected in the old city was turned into a hospital during the siege. It the property of the Japanese Red C ~s Society, and is used as a hospital tor. the Japanese. 1 ' The Japanese officials occupj’many Of the Russian public buildings. The civ 1. offices, of; the Manchurian • Government are in“r'a'; gray' structure in the new town jj. the'military department is m a ;; ■ :

white' ’hiiilding-' farther back, Valid ,'the Russian V naVrvt; - offices, -.- which ‘ .coveredan acre' or 'so, are to' be turned into a ' Japanese military academy i The hotel in which I writ© this letter is. the once famous restaurant known as Saratofs, where , the Russian officers gambled, 'a way ’'thousands' -of roubles - arid dranktheir vodka. It has the same bar-room and the same Odesso billiard tables, but the vodka has disappeared and a Japanese bartender dispenses saki instead. , ,Japanese,, girls, wait upon you in the dining-room, and' Japahese hoys act as your chambermaids- The hotel belongs to the South Manchurian railway,. which is now a Japanese corporation, and it has become a most orderly place. '

V BUSINESS IS DEAD. The’Port Arthur of Russia was far different from that of Japan. In the old days there were, .soldiers every- l where. Military officers', dressed in., big caps and long coats, swaggered through the streets. There was a large garrison, everything was booming and money and drink flowed like water. A circus building was erected in which all sorts of shows were held, and there were famous cafes and restaurants. Today the circus has been turned into a bazaar, and about two score- Japanese women sell all sorts of Japanese goods at the booths within it. Tho soldiers have disappeared. The Japanese have only one "regiment here, and* nothing'like as many troops are to be seen as in the towns of Korea or even Japan.

As far as business is concerned, the city is dead. It consists of about 5000 Manchurian Chinese, and the military and civil officials of the Japanese Government. The Chinese are poor.

The Chinese do the rough work of Port Arthur. Many of them are now; engaged in getting out the blocks of stone with which the Russians ; sank their merchant vessels when they knew that Port Arthur must fall. More than thirty ships were destroyed in that way; some thousand stone blocks being used for the purpose. The Japanese are sending these blocks home for their public schools. One will be erected as a monument in each-playground, to keep alive the memory of the heroes of Port Arthur.

“Will your people continue to hold Manchuria and Korea?” I asked this question, of a high Japanese officer. “Yes,” was the emphatic reply. “We shall hold on to Korea as long as there is a bone left in a soldier’s leg to stand upon the soil. We are in Manchuria to* stay, and we will die before we will allow either the Chinese or Russians to drive us away.”

HONORING THE FALLEN FOES. At the ,-same time -there is a kindly feeling for the Russians among the Japanese. They have erected a little granite temple, with a Greek cross upon its top, as a monument to the dead among their enemies who fell at ror* Arthur. This is situated on a low lull, about two miles from the city apd surrounding it are the graves of ,thousands of Russian soldiers. There is a brick wall enclosing several acres about tlw monument. In this space the officers are buried, the grave of each being marked with a stone or iron, cross. Outside on tmTslopes of the hill stands a thicket of white-wooden crosses, . rising: to. the height of a man s and marking the graves of the privates. The inscriptions, on the monument are in Japanese and Russian, and they state that the memorial, was .erected, by the Emperor of Japan m honor orf the bravery of .his -great enemy, the. Russians.' ' ''