PORT ARTHUR 



6264 



PORT AUGUSTA 



Port Arthur, Canada. Docks and railway wharves 



grain to Montreal and elsewhere, 

 and in addition to large grain 

 elevators, has shipbuilding yards, 

 sawmills, blast furnaces, foundries, 

 etc. Pop. 18,500. 



Port Arthur OR LUSHUN. Forti- 

 fied seaport at the S.W. end of 

 the Liao-tung peninsula, Man- 

 churia. It is a terminus of the 

 Siberian rly. system, and has a 

 secure harbour ice-free throughout 

 the year. Pop. 14,000. 



The fortress was captured twice 

 by the Japanese ; in 1894 from 

 China ; and from the Russians in 

 1904-5. In 1894 its inadequate 

 fortifications were speedily taken 

 by a Japanese army under Oyama, 

 which commenced to land at Pi- 

 tsze-wo on October 24, rapidly 

 carried Kinchow and Talienwan, 

 and on Nov. 17 moved forward to 

 attack, assaulted and carried the 

 W. defences at dawn, and entered 

 the town. By 3 p.m. all resistance 

 was at an end. At the peace, Port 

 Arthur was ceded to the Japanese, 

 but European pressure compelled 

 them to restore the town to China. 



In 1898 Port Arthur was leased 

 to Russia with the neighbouring 

 port of Talienwan. It was con- 

 nected by railway with Mukden, 

 gradually converted into a Russian 

 stronghold, and became the princi- 

 pal base of the Russian eastern 

 fleet. By 1904 the continuous 

 enceinte had become obsolete, and 

 the main line of defence was on the 

 outer edge of the amphitheatre of 

 hills 2,000 to 4,000 yards from the 

 harbour, with eight permanent, 

 detached forts. In between were 

 semi-permanent works on every 



knoll, connected up by several 

 lines of trenches for a circumfer- 

 ence of about 12 miles. The most 

 obvious weakness was that 203- 

 metre hill, about 5,000 yards N.W. 

 of the New Town and harbour, 

 overlooked both, and had no 

 permanent works, though there 

 were strong semi-permanent works; 

 174-metre hill, J,500 yards beyond, 

 was also held. 



From the outbreak of the Russo- 

 Japanese War, Togo blockaded the 

 harbour. When the Japanese, after 

 the battle of Nanshan on May 26, 

 1904, cut off communications with 

 the north, General Stossel was left 

 in command with a garrison of 

 some 47,000 men. After Nanshan, 

 the siege was entrusted to the 

 Japanese 3rd army under Nogi, 

 which commenced to land on 

 June 1. Dalny was seized without 

 fighting, and a month was spent in 

 preparing this port as a base. 



Stossel had taken up a strong 

 position outside his defences, from 

 which he was dislodged on June 26, 

 but on July 3 and 4 he made a 

 counterstroke which delayed the 

 Japanese. On July 26 Nogi ad- 

 vanced, and after two days' 

 fighting, July 27 and 28, he forced 

 Stossel to withdraw inside his line 

 of defence. Nogi commenced a 

 three days' bombardment on Aug. 

 19, and made a determined assault 

 on the N.E. front on the 21st and 

 22nd, which failed, and Stossel 

 made a counter-attack on the 23rd 

 and 24th. On Oct. 1 the Japanese 

 brought into action 11-inch howit- 

 zers after an abortive attempt to 

 capture 203-metre hill. 



From Oct. 26 to Nov. 2 furious 

 assaults were made without sub- 

 stantial results, but on Dec. 5, 

 powerfully aided by the 11 -inch 

 howitzers and other artillery, 

 203-metre hill was captured. 

 One by one during Dec. the per- 

 manent works on the northern 

 front were crushed by the howit- 

 zers, and a gap was made in the 

 defences. The garrison had begun 

 to lose heart when General Kon- 

 dratenko, who had been their 

 mainstay, was killed on Dec. 15, 

 and on Jan. 2, 1905, Stossel sur- 

 rendered, having only 24,000 

 effectives and 15,000 wounded and 

 sick left out of his 47,000. The 

 Japanese paid heavily for their 

 success, losing 92,000 men, 58..000 

 killed and wounded, as- well as 

 34,000 sick. 



By the treaty of Portsmouth, 

 New Hampshire, 1905, Port Arthur 

 was ceded by the Russians to 

 Japan, and in 1915 the Chinese 

 extended the lease for a further 

 period of 99 years. During the 

 occupation by Japan important rly. 

 construction has been undertaken 

 in the Liao-tung peninsula, Mukden 

 being connected with Antung on 

 the Yalu river, and a branch line 

 built by joint Chinese and Japanese 

 enterprise from Kwanchengtze to 

 Kirin in central Manchuria. See 

 Russo-Japanese War. 



Portative Organ. Medieval 

 musical instrument It was a 

 small pipe organ which could be 

 carried about by the performer, 

 who worked the bellows and 

 manipulated the keys somewhat 

 as the accordion is played. See 

 Organ ; Positive Organ. 



Port Augusta. Seaport in 

 S. Australia. It stands at the head 

 of Spencer Gulf, 259 m. N. of 

 Adelaide by rly., and is the start- 

 ing point for both transcontinental 

 rly. routes, the one completed to 

 Kalgoorlie, 1,000 m. away, and the 

 other completed as far as Oodna- 

 datta with proposed connexion to 

 the rly. S. from Darwin, in N. Terri- 

 tory. It is the outlet of a district 

 of gold, silver, copper, iron, and 

 coal mines, and of a pastoral area 

 producing wheat and wool. Ostrich 

 farming is carried on. Pop. 1,500. 



Port Arthur, Manchuria. Town and docks seen from across the East Harbour ; on the left is the passage to the 



open sea, and beyond it the West Harbour 



