the end

almost before dawn next morning, on the eastern front near signal hill, was sounded the last note in the titanic struggle for arthur. some volleys rang out on the quiet air, died away into independent firing, then stopped. boom! boom! went two guns, and then all was silent. it appeared that the japanese, thinking that signal hill was only held by outposts, decided to seize it under cover of night. they advanced without even taking the usual military precautions. unfortunately for them the hill was held by a company of infantry, which, having noticed their approach, allowed them to get within short range, and then poured volley after volley into them. twenty dead and eighty wounded were left on the ground. they wavered, and our men charged with the bayonet. the fight continued for some moments, costing us five wounded and one killed.

at daybreak all the hills on both sides swarmed with men who had recently been foes: they stared at each other fascinated. the two great masses of men differed but little from each other. both had come here to die, to die without a murmur and obediently. the only difference was that on the one side they died for duty and for an object understood by all, knowing their own superiority; on the other they died for the same reason, but feeling their inferiority. the latter it was who drank the bitter cup. their[pg 331] one hope now was that they should be spared the fate of being taken prisoners of war. negotiations were being carried on that day, and, of course, those responsible would spare them the shame of imprisonment. but no! they had to drain the dregs.

pic

admiral wiren.

a carriage was seen driving from the district staff office; it proceeded quickly round the central mandarin road to the village of siu-shuing, the place appointed for the meeting. in it was colonel reuss, who was escorted on horseback by colonels khvostoff, dmitrevsky, captains schesnovitch, golovan, student lebedeff (interpreter), and malchenko. before they started, general st?ssel, in the presence of fock, told them all that he had given all instructions and full authority for the conclusion of the capitulation confidentially to reuss, and that reuss had also been given a letter for general baron nogi. st?ssel, fock, and reuss were nervous; they were also, it seems, in a great hurry, for no lawyer was asked to look over the terms of capitulation, nor was one present even when the terms were signed.

the commandant, holding aloof from any participation in the surrender, sent the following cipher telegram to the commander-in-chief, dated january 2, no. 1,300:

'general st?ssel has entered into negotiations with the enemy for surrendering the fortress without informing me, and in spite of my opinion and that of the majority of the commanding officers.'

reuss, with his companions, soon reached the appointed spot. they were met by the chief of the staff of the japanese army, who handed to them the proposed text of the agreement,[44] written in english. he gave them an hour in which to think it over, and went away. reuss then read the contents aloud to the others. golovan[pg 332] began to protest; he was cut short. 'they are the victors; we must submit to their demands.' after a short conference and passionate protests from khvostoff, golovan, and schesnovitch—as a matter of fact their protests were waste of breath, for reuss alone had plenary powers, the others being only there for show—reuss agreed to make three alterations: (1) that the garrison should not be made prisoners of war; (2) that officers should be permitted to take their orderlies with them; (3) that the allowance of baggage should be increased. the japanese returned punctually within the hour, and took away the text of the capitulation with the alterations for consideration. after a quarter of an hour they returned, and said definitely:

'we only agree to the second alteration. will you sign?'

reuss pondered for a moment, then said:

'i will.'

i will not bore the reader with the terms of the convention, which are now well known, or the procedure of signing. no sooner was the shameful document signed than reuss sent a japanese messenger to st?ssel with a note, saying:

'the capitulation is signed, and, in accordance with it, the destruction of all property must be immediately stopped.

st?ssel at once replied:

'i have done everything; tell the japanese.'

the news of the surrender being an accomplished fact soon spread among the garrison. our men seemed suddenly to change their natures, all discipline went to the winds, and rioting commenced. some, throwing their arms away, went straight down to the town, which became one vast scene of drunkenness and orgy. the shops and stores were looted, and wholesale robbery was the order of the day. the crowd broke up everything[pg 333] they could, amongst other things the library of the novy kry. the officers, seeing that it was hopeless to try and cope with their men, hid from the maddened crowds.

and now a few words as to general st?ssel and how he took the surrender. when the riot was reported to him, he at once became alarmed, and asked for a hundred japanese soldiers as a guard over his house and property. nogi sent the men, fully armed and equipped. fearing that matters would become serious, st?ssel sent the following note to smirnoff:

'the strictest steps must be taken at once to deal with the looting which has commenced. i would request you to be so kind as to send out patrols. reuss tells me that the terms of the surrender are honourable. please excuse pencil.'

it is difficult to understand what was in his mind when he wrote that note. was he laughing at the commandant, or had he gone off his head? as soon as irman heard of the surrender he went to smirnoff.

'is it true, sir, that the fortress has been surrendered?'

'i know nothing about it. st?ssel has done everything without reference to me. go and ask him.'

irman went at once to st?ssel, and having ascertained that the fortress had been given up, he asked leave to go to chifu on a destroyer: he wished to break through to the army in the north. but st?ssel flatly refused permission, saying:

'good heavens! what are you talking about? what are we to do with all the gold vases? how am i to get them away? why, the japanese might get them; we must save them.'

'if you want to make certain that the japanese don't get them, sir, i should throw them into the sea,' was irman's answer.

[pg 334]

st?ssel was referring to the gold vases, goblets, spoons, etc., looted from the pekin palace which were kept in arthur. the gold plate had been kept under special arrangements in the quarter-guard of the 12th regiment, but when this corps left for manchuria the plate was left behind. on the evening of january 3 a mysterious cart arrived at the quarter-guard, and disappeared in the dark of the night.

some of the questions put to st?ssel later at the commission of inquiry, and his replies to them, may help to show how he was occupied at this time. when asked by major-general roops why he, contrary to all military regulations, took out of arthur some thirty-eight cartloads of his own property, he replied:

'i did it with the permission of the emperor of japan.'

on being asked why he did not share the fate of the garrison and go into imprisonment, he answered:

'i was ordered not to by her imperial highness the tsarina.'

he had indeed received a telegram from the empress in which she had said she would be glad to 'see him in russia.' the emperor and russia did not at that time know what st?ssel was!

when he was asked by the commission why he surrendered port arthur on his own responsibility, and did not summon the council of war to consider the question, he said:

'there was no time for that. i forestalled the japanese, and did not give them the possibility of breaking into arthur; i was thus able to prevent a street massacre.'

and this was the cry of all the whole st?ssel clique before the committee of inquiry.

one extract from the diary and i have finished:

'january 2, 1905.—on the way to the rendezvous of the japanese commission appointed to take over, we met[pg 335] an officer of the japanese general staff who greeted us in russian. ribnikoff at once recognized him to be a man called ito, who had been in arthur for several years as a watchmaker!'

small wonder they beat us!

so it ended—so ended russian port arthur. from its loss—from this mighty struggle, this long-drawn-out nightmare of suffering, this death of all our aspirations—new hope is born to our nation, a hope of better days.

salus patri?. suprema lex est.