604
stench of rotting corpses. It was the last
day but one of the long-drawn agony.—
Nojine, 1bid., p. 252. In the sequel the
hill was lost and with it five thousand
Russians. THIS WAS THE BEGIN-
NING OF THE END.
Last Council of War
On December 29th, 1904, at 6:00 P.M.
was held the last council of war in Port
Arthur. All the senior commanders in
the fortress were present. General Stos-
sel had called the meeting in the hopes,
it would appear, that the officers would
counsel him to surrender. In this, how-
ever, he was doomed to disappointment.
Almost without exception the command-
ers opposed surrender. True, Colonel
Dmitrevsky declared that the food was
bad, and that the ammunition was low ;
but Major-General Biely, commanding
the fortress artillery, repudiated the lat-
ter statement, saying: —
“I fail to understand what Dmitrevsky
means by saying there is no ammunition.
We have plenty to repulse two more attacks
—one hundred and two thousand shells of
our own and one hundred thousand still avail-
able from the fleet, with eight million rounds
of small ammunition. From an artillery
point of view I do not consider we are at all
in a critical position. The defense ought to
be continued.”—Nojine, Ibid., p. 307.
The brave Smirnoff made a soldier’s
speech announcing his intention of de-
fending the fortress “till all strength and
means are exhausted.” He considered
that they could hold out for at least six
weeks, “By that time our supplies will
be running out, and then—not till then
(raising his voice)—can the question of
the fortress’ life be discussed.”—Nojine,
Ibid, p. 3009.
General Stossel then stated that in
view of the fact that all were willing to
fight on, they would continue the strug-
gle, and so the meeting broke up. But
everybody knew that at the very first op-
THE WATCHMAN
portunity he would surrender the for-
tress. He was unconvinced and ashamed
—there was nothing for him to do but
to wait. With him in the infamous plot
to surrender were General Fock and
Colonel Reiss, his chief of staff. “Ev-
erything demanded a defense to the death
—a glorious defense, which would have
removed all sting of defeat.”
Roman Isidorovitch
On December 15th the brave Roman
Isidorovitch (General Kondrachenko),
was blown to pieces in the casemate ® of
Fort Chi-kuan-shan, He was General
Smiirnoff’s chief of staff, and equally
determined with him to hold out to the
bitter end. In spite of the protests of
Smirnoff, General Stossel insisted on ap-
pointing the cowardly Fock—the “Gen-
eral of Retreats,” as the men had dubbed
him—to the vacant position. This was
evidently done to hasten the surrender.
After this men’s spirits seemed to have
vanished. Fock almost immediately sur-
rendered the Chi-kuan-shan Fort. This
was not really necessary, and by his act
Fock inflicted a mortal wound the hem-
orrhage from which could not be
stanched. The fall of the Erh-lung-shan
Fort soon followed. It was wholly due
to bad moral.
The Awful Hospitals
At a time when the world is mourning
the death of Florence Nightingale, “the
Angel of the Crimea,” a few words may
not be out of place relative to the hospi-
tals in Arthur. From what has been
written it would appear that they were
little if any better than those of the
Crimea half a century ago. Arthur was
only equipped with hospitals to accom-
modate three thousand sick and wounded.
At the close of the siege there were at
least fifteen thousand sick and wounded
—twelve thousand more than the hospi-
6 A casemate is a vault of concrete and mason
work in the bowels of the earth beneath a fort.