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288 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
steadily increasing numbers, every day. The
bandages had completely given out ;
what there j|
were had been washed and used over and over i
again. Compresses were also lacking, though J
new ones were improvised from seaweed, washed
in solution of potash. There was no suitable food .
for the sick and wounded ;
especially the lack of
fresh fruit and vegetables was keenly felt ;
bread .
and horseflesh alone do not constitute a very
salubrious diet for sick men. There were, at the
time of the capitulation, about 17,000 men in
hospital ;
of these only 3,387 were wounded ;
the
’
others were suffering from various diseases. The
most common was the scurvy, of which there were
5,625 serious cases under treatment, but besides t
these, according to the Japanese Inspector 1
General, over 90 per cent, of the men in the
|
hospitals suffered from lighter attacks of this
disease, which was spreading very rapidly also
amonest the men in the forts and the trenches.
o , ,
Ten days before the capitulation there were about
100 fresh cases daily; but the number increased
’
rapidly to 200, 400, 800, even 1,000 on the last
days, and it is easy to foresee that, with no means
of combating the disease, the whole garrison would
soon succumb to it.
The situation when the fortress surrendered
therefore was this :
General Stoessel could give up the eastern fort- <
ridge and the old town and concentrate his forces
|
in the two other sections. He could safely leave i
the sick and wounded in the hospitals under the i
protection of the Red Cross flag, and feel sure 1
that the Japanese would look after them and take i
care of them ;
but the question must naturally /
present itself to him. What would become of the 1
men who were wounded or fell sick during the ’
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