596
RUSSIAN CRY OF “GOD IS WITH US!”
DID NOT COME TRUE. GOD WAS
WITH “THEM."—Semenoff, Ibid., p. 459.
Wonderful fulfilment of a wonderful
prophecy. Ezekiel, the seer, in the days
of Israel’s Babylonish captivity—in the
times when God was punishing the
chosen people, when their harps hung
on the willows of Babylon, and when
their sad voices refused to sing for their
captors one song of their dear homeland,
Zion—Fzekiel, the seer, I say, had writ-
ten of how the Lord would be against
the Russians and would turn them back
in the last days. Ah, strange indeed
that those words spoken and written
twenty-five hundred years before on Che-
bar’s banks should fill the heart and flow
from the pen of a commander aboard
the Russian flag-ship Swuwvoroff as she
and her consorts steamed sadly toward
Tsushima’s where death and defeat and
a watery grave awaited them,—and all
in fulfilment of this same prophecy.
Oh, how should this strengthen our
faith in the mighty Word of God. Why
cannot men believe that God knoweth the
end from the beginning, and that the
MOST HIGH RULETH IN THE
KINGDOM OF MEN, AND GIVETH
IT TO WHOMSOEVER HE WILL.
The Muddle in Port Arthur
Everybody in Port Arthur knew that
the friction between Generals Stossel and
Smirnoff must sooner or later end in
ruin, General Stossel was commander of
the district of Kwantun. In this dis-
trict the fortress of Arthur was situated.
General Smirnoff was commandant of
the fortress. Very early in the war the
district of Kwantun, excepting Arthur,
fell into the hands of the Japanese. This
left no district for Stossel to command
excepting Arthur, which already had a
commandant.
General Smirnoff was a brave man,
THE WATCHMAN
and determined to defend the fortress to
the last ditch. He was wedded to the
military principles that the “bones of a
regiment should surround its fallen
colors,” and that “a gun must be fought
till not a man is left,” and that “a fort
may die, but must never surrender.”—
Nojine, Ibid., p. 348. He was indefati-
gable in the performance of duty—ever
around in places of danger with his offi-
cers and men—in the caponieres of the
fort and the trenches.
Almost from the first General Stossel
appears to have lost his head. Nanshan,
or Kinchou, as the Russians called it,
one of the most strategic points, was left
unfortified —Nojine, Ibid., p. 29. On
May 23rd he issued the following or-
der :—
Before May 28 all cattle must be removed
from the country round the town of Kinchou;
i. e, north of the position of that name.—
Nojine, Ibid., p. 61.
Well does Nojine ask, “Was it a
joke?” The country around the town
of Kinchou was already in possession
of the Japanese, But there were worse
things than this, During peace time
nothing had been done relative to the
installation of a proper fortress telephone
system. At the last moment the laying
of a fortress telegraph was commenced,
but the system was overhead where fall-
ing shells frequently cut the wires, Be-
sides, the private and military lines were
together, so that often by induction the
most secret military orders could be
learned by the public and the Japanese
spies. Such a state of affairs in a be-
sieged fortress was surely a monstrosity.
—Nojine, Ibid., p. 14. Colonel Tretia-
koff, a sapper of great ability, set to
work to fortify Kinchou, knowing full
well that there the first great blow would
fall. For the sake of illustration of the
way General Stossel treated such efforts
the following excerpt will be of inter-
est :—