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THE CAPITULATION 285
have held out for another month or another six
weeks ? Those are the questions which have been
raised, and to which I will endeavour to give an
answer.
When, after the first interview between the
chiefs of staff at Plumtree Cottage, Shuishi
village, I asked at headquarters what it was that
had caused the Russians to surrender at the
present juncture, I was told that they had given
the following reasons :
1. The insufficient strength ol the garrison.
There were only 4,000 soldiers to defend the
immense area against the Japanese forces, which
now amounted to nearly ico,ooo men. The
remainder of the garrison was either sick or
wounded.
2. Shortness of ammunition and provisions:
there was only ammunition enough for five days
more.
3. The state of the hospitals. Nearly 20,000
men were in hospital, sick or wounded, and there
was no more medicine, disinfectants, bandages
nor proper compresses, and no suitable food for
them. Severe epidemics of typhoid, dysentery,
and scurvy had broken out, and the number of
sick was increasing by hundreds daily.
4. The capture of their strongest forts in the
Eastern section made it inevitable that the old
town, where most of the hospitals were situated
and where most of the civilian population lived,
must be surrendered in the near future ;
besides,
the Russians feared that if it were taken by
assault a general massacre might follow.
These reasons, of course, fully justified a sur-
render, and I think everybody felt relieved that
the garrison, which for months had fought so
bravely against heavy odds, were spared the last
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