TRIOTLY speaking, there has been no news from the 1.)
Far East this week,' but the details of the struggle round Liao-yang clear up many doubts. They show that General Kuropatkin was defeated, and driven, after terrible losses, to retreat through Mukdeia towards Tie-ling; but they show, also, that he extricated' his army with consummate skill ; that Liao-yang was only carried after many assaults and enormous loss to the Japanese ; that Marshal Oyama's plan of enveloping his enemy was discerned by Kuropatkin, and defeated by the dogged endurance of the Russians; and that at the conclusion of the six days of combat both armies were thoroughly exhausted, and both in great difficulties for food. The Russians will, it is believed, defend Mukden desperately, fearing lest its fall should rouse all China; but the spot chosen for the next great battle will be close to Tie-ling, fifty miles north of Mukden, where a strong position has been selected and prepared. No trust- worthy estimate of the losses in the series of battles round Liao-yang has yet been published, but there is reason to fear that the fifty thousand killed and wounded at which we estimated it last week is considerably below the truth. There are said to be thirty-six thousand wounded men in the improvised hospitals at Mukden, and in the great fight to beat back Kuroki's attempt to envelop Kuropatkin the killed alone exceeded three thousand.
