T HE terrible battle of the Sha-ho—it will be convenient to
use the name affixed to it by Marshal Oyama—which lasted for nine days, reached a lull on Wednesday, and Friday's news shows that the two forces are facing each other almost at close quarters, but that both are for the present too much exhausted to take the initiative. There is a rumour also, but from a Russian source, that General Kuroki is dying of dysentery. The Japanese attack of the 12th, of which we spoke last week, was continued on the 13th and 14th, on which latter day the Japanese Marshal reported to his Sovereign that the three armies of the right, the centre, and the left, each nearly sixty thousand strong, were all driving the enemy northward to the Hun River. GeneralKuropatkin's " plans were defeated," and his "offensive movement converted into a radical failure." The action con- tinued on the 15th, when the Japanese estimated that the Russians had lost thirty thousand men and thirty guns, they themselves winning, in fact, what seemed a great victory, though at the commencement of the action the Russian General had at his disposal two hundred thousand men. On the 16th, however, it was proved that the Russians, if defeated, had not lost heart, for they made no less than seven desperate charges upon the left army, all of which were repulsed, though with terrible slaughter, much of the fighting being hand-to-hand. One grave incident of the fighting was, moreover, unfavourable to the Japanese, a column under General Yamada being enveloped by the Russians. It cut its way through with heavy loss, but was compelled to abandon its guns, fourteen in number. The incident greatly encouraged the Russians, and was received in St. Petersburg as a sign that the tide of fortune was turning ; but by the latest accounts they have been driven back fifteen miles. Both armies are now resting from ex- haustion.
