We suppose the news of the week from the Far
East is approximately true, and if true, it is important. The Japanese have entered China at two points. One army, under Marshal Yamagata, has crossed the Yaloo, and has captured a Chinese fortification, defended, say the Japanese, by sixteen thousand men, without a blow. The Chinese soldiers, thinking them- selves surrounded, evacuated the place, and fled to another fortification fifty miles further on, throwing away many rifles in their haste. Another army, fifteen thousand strong, sent direct from Japan under Count Oyama, has landed at a point some thirty miles from Port Arthur, and either is attacking or intends to attack that arsenal. The Japanese move with un- explained slowness, and it is said that the fear of winter, which was expected to hurry them, is not entertained. On the con- trary, says one Japanese of station now in Europe, exceseive cold has been anticipated, and will help the Japanese, for the frost will render the whole country passable for artillery and commissariat stores. That is a clever statement, and is known to be true of Southern Russia ; but how about the Corean snowfall ? Dragging guns over plains 3 ft. deep in snow is a process demanding steam-traction engines, and the Japanese can hardly have built, much less sent, such heavy tools. If they did not care about life, they could get on ; but they cannot waste their drilled men.
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