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KURDISTAN  which tempted the worst spirits to lynchings, whippings and similar excesses, until the better class of southerners withdrew, and it became a blot and scourge. After 1872 the organization became little more than a name, although isolated attempts were often made to trade upon the terrors of its reputation.  Kur′distan′. See.  Kuroki, General Baron Itel, was born in 1845 in the city of Kagoshima in the GEN. KUROKI southeast of Kiu-shiu, the southernmost of the chief islands of Japan. Here the hardiest Japanese are born; it is the Sparta of Japan, the birthplace of Togo and Oyama. Kuroki is of pure samurai (or noble) descent; the story of his foreign parentage is false. As a boy he entered the army in a humble position, but in the war of 1868, when he was but 23, he commanded a detachment which was in the very thick of the fighting, and rendered the Mikado great service against his rebellious subjects. In 1871 he was appointed captain of the imperial guard. He served with distinction against the rebel forces in the war of 1877. He was quick to adapt himself to the suggestions of the Germans who trained the Japanese army. In the war against China in 1894 he acted as commander of the sixth division, ranking as lieutenant-general. His forces gained special distinction at the capture of the fort of Wei-Hai-Wei. When war began against Russia in 1904, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the first Japanese army-corps in the field, and as such led the main advance across the Yalu and up the line of the Russian railway towards Harbin. He won the great victories of the Yalu (near Wiju), Liao Yang and Mukhden. His generalship was commonly counted superior to that of

the Russian commander, Kuropatkin, and received almost universal commendation.  Kuropatkin, Alexei Nikolayevitch, the Russian generalissimo during the earlier part of the war with Japan, was born in 1848. He went to the military school of the cadet corps in Pskov near St. Petersburg; then to Pavlovskoe Military College, graduating and gaining his commission as sublieutenant at 18. He then hastened to scenes of conflict in central Asia. Returning, he spent six years (1868-74) in study at the Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg. Later he studied in France, ALEXEI N. KUROPATKIN where he was awarded the cross of the Legion of Honor. Returning to Russia, he served in Tartary and western China. He spent 12 years at St. Petersburg as professor of military statistics at the Academy of the General Staff. He was called to the front and won the rank of major-general and the Cross of St. George at the siege of the Turcoman fortress. In 1890 he was appointed governor of the transcaspian region, and promoted to the rank of lieutenant-governor. While there he was influential in establishing trade-schools. Thence he went to St. Petersburg as minister of war, where he remained until 1904. He distinguished himself by sound though unsuccessful generalship in the Russio-Japanese War, only to be superseded by a subordinate and to fall into unmerited disgrace.  Kuyunjik. See.  Kwangtung′, a maritime province of southern China. Area, with the adjoining island of Hainan, 99,970 square miles; estimated population 31,865,250 The capital is Canton (population 1,250,000). Tea is extensively cultivated, while silk culture is one of the chief industries. 