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THE REASON 299
the garrison, which at the beginning of the siege
they estimated at less than 20,000 men, but they
were also completely uninformed or misinformed
regarding the strength, the construction, and the
disposition of the fortifications, a fact which, as I
have pointed out on several occasions, led to very
serious mistakes in the tactics adopted. The
explanation of this is probably that, at the out-
break of the war, the fortifications of Port
Arthur were in a very unfinished state, the
greater part not being then in existence at all.
After the first attack of the fleet on February
9th, the Russians of course took measures to
prevent any information regarding them from
leaking out.
The Japanese have certainly in all their un-
dertakings “prearranged”—to use the common
expression—everything, down to the minutest
details, in a way which is unique in the
history of war, and it is certain that this com-
pleteness of their arrangements, where nothing
has been forgotten and everything has been
thought of and planned beforehand, goes a long
way to explain the success of everything they set
themselves to do. I could mention hundreds of
instances to bear out my statement, but I shall
confine myself to a single case, the first that
came under my observation during the war.
On the’ evening of February 8th the Japanese
landed their first troops on Korean soil, at
Chemulpo. Four transports carried the troops
from Japan. The harbour of Chemulpo, with its
thirty feet tide, is such that steamers have to
anchor a couple of miles from the jetty. In order
to secure a speedy landing, the transports carried
with them on deck a number of barges, each with
a holding capacity of from 60 to 100 men ;
a
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