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KUANG-TUNG PENINSULA 9
name of the place was therefore not “ the fortress
of Port Arthur,” but “ the fortified district of
Kuang-tung.”
With a fleet strong enough, with the assistance
of mines and submarines, to make a landing of
hostile troops on the peninsula impossible, a more
ideal place for a prolonged defence could scarcely
be found on the face of the earth.
Joined to the mainland by the narrow neck to
the south of Kinchow, where the excellent posi-
tion, Nanshan, barred the way to an attacking
force, the peninsula expands to a width of some
twelve or thirteen miles and attains a length of some
twenty-flve miles. It presents a series of excel-
lent defensive positions, one behind the other,
where even a comparatively weak land force, sup-
ported by a strong fleet, would have been able to
withstand the attack of vastly superior forces,
because the sea on both sides would prevent any
turning movement on a larger scale. Every foot
of the ground would have to be bought with heavy
sacriflces, as every one of the positions would have
to be taken by frontal attacks. The further for-
wards the attackers were able to push, the stronger
the positions would become, until a double line of
permanent fortifications would face them, and
force them to sit down to a regular siege. Pro-
perly fortified and provisioned, these inner lines,
w’hich were to be constructed on the naturally
immensely strong positions surrounding the town
and the harbour, would be practically impregnable,
or at least be able to keep an enemy at bay for
years, and the fortified district of Kuang-tung
would become one of the two or three strongest
fortresses of the world.
During the six years Russia had been in pos-
session of the Kuang-tung peninsula very little
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