the big fighting of 1904 had ended at least round Moukden.

In the south Nogi was still methodically at work. Siege guns of the heaviest calibre were landed at Dalny, and brought up under the greatest difficulties to within a few thousand yards of the Russian lines. A naval brigade with naval guns supplemented the efforts of the military, and by means of a slow devastating bombardment the offensive quality of the Russian resistance was beaten down. The saps were pushed rapidly forward, and some outworks of importance seized, and by October, two months after the disastrous attempt to storm the fortress, the Japanese trenches poked their sinuous lines right under the noses of some of the great forts of the northern and north-eastern front. The close of October and the beginning of November were marked by furious attempts to break the impregnability of the main enceinte, but although a lodgment was actually gained on the counterscarp of at least one fort, and the fate of the other forts hung in the balance, the strength of the Port Arthur fortifications and the stubbornness of the defenders still defied Nogi's deathless soldiery.

It had already been made plain that yet other measures would have to be resorted to. Two were selected, the capture of 203-Metre Hill, which, with the exception of Liaotishan, was the most commanding height around the fortress, and the systematic undermining of the great forts of the northern and north-eastern sections.

A JAPANESE ASSAULT ON PORT ARTHUR.

Commencing in November, and ending with its final capture by the Japanese on the first days of December, the struggle for the possession of High Hill was of the most sanguinary description. At last, at a total cost of 15,000 killed and wounded, the Japanese banners floated over a natural fort, whose entire contour had been changed by the terrific bombardment to which it had been submitted. The famous 11-inch howitzers, flinging projectiles weighing hundreds of pounds, had beaten the Russian defence to a pulp, but round the 203Metre height thousands of rotting corpses testified to the enormous price paid by attackers and defenders alike.

The capture of 203-Metre Hill marked a very important point in the progress of the siege operations. Directed from the signal stations immediately established on the summit, the bombarding batteries of heavy guns and mammoth howitzers could pour a terribly effective fire on the shattered remnant of the once proud fleet crouching in the harbour, and complete its destruction; and, more important still, could reduce the fortifications of the main enceinte to mere shapeless masses of cement and earth, rendering the working of the Russian guns well-nigh impossible. The last days of December saw the northern forts begin to fall, and on the 1st January, 1905, General Stoessel marked the beginning of a new year by his offer to surrender-an offer which was immediately accepted.

Such is a rough and ready account of the tragic year of 1904. The main features are quite clear, but there are many things which necessarily cannot be properly dealt with or appraised for many months to come. Certain interesting considerations, however, may be tentatively dealt with, and it is with this object that some analysis is made of the tremendous field of operations and the very varied factors which go to make up the whole enthralling situation. It is comforting to be able to reflect that if the British made huge mistakes in the South African War, both Russia and Japan, the first in a greater degree, the second in a lesser, have been guilty of faults hardly less to be censured, which only strenuous efforts have succeeded in partially repairing. It is necessary to begin at the beginning, and at the risk of some burdensome repetition recapitulate the position at the outbreak of war, the manner in which the position changed with the slow progress of the war, and the final aspects at the beginning of the year 1905.

It is impossible to understand the parlous position Russia found herself in the very moment the first shot was fired without thoroughly appreciating the true state of affairs in Manchuria brought about by what it is well to term the Alexeieff régime.1

From the autumn of 1900, when the great invasion of the three Chinese provinces began with a

1 For a complete account of Manchuria under the Russian heel the reader is referred to the author's work, Manchu and Muscovite, written a few weeks before the outbreak of war.