to listen to these gentlemen, who, by their own statement, had never been allowed to see or hear anything, laying down the law, regardless of the' varied nationality of the listeners, as to what should have been done and how; criticising the actions of the different Generals engaged in the battle of Lisoyang, hoedioss of the fact that these Generals i ion with balloons, scouts, and numerous other sources of information, and of thi very existence of which they might have expected to be kept in ignorance. Yet, on the strength of thely having been present at other campaigns, in' other parts of the world, where all they had thought fit to say had passed unchallonged, they wore expressing, themselves ti remember that a map, scorningly well drawn and accurate, to judge by the comments of the others, was passed round by one of the gentle: men, who stated that it was his own production? Three of the correspondents had been present at the battle of Liaoyang, and must have been IN THE VERY THICK OF THE FIGHTING, ing the descriptions they gave of the bayonet charges, of the particular manner in which the bayonet was handled by the in, a8 compared with the Japanese who, it was stated, was much quicker and' handier in its use, so that ho generally' got the best of it when it came to cold stool nor in which the working of the guns was directed by the officers on bot 3 yet these details wore given by men who had been publicly complaining in print, that they could never get near enough to see anything worth seem, "How, thu, are we to reconcile all this?" asked my friend, with warmth, "what more do they want Because a great and powerful nation, like Great Britain, thought it could afford to have its plans repeatedly disclosed by the indiscretion of the war correspondents, and permitted its army and its officers to be criticised with impunity, are such things desirable or necessary? Wo are fighting for our very existence, and we cannot afford to make mistakes,"
Imay here mention that "mong the war' correspondents on board was Mr. Frodrick Palmer, special writer for "Qollier's Weekly" (New York), a man who has been in frequent campaigns, with a groat reputation. In his opinion the Russian marksmanship was inferior to that of the Japanese, although the former possessed the advantage in their type of artillery, while the new Shimoso powder (one of the latest Japanese inventions) was described by all who had witnessed its effects, as being a terrible explosive.
Another was MR. &. ¥. KNIGHT, who is said to here soon more batttes than any other war correspondent, and who was acting for the "Morning Post." Tt was almost pathetic sometimes to see this brave English gentleman sticking gamely to his typewriter, his only way, appar rently—for, sid to say, he lost his right arm in South Africa by a Boer shell—of doing his writing, though he corrects the sheets with the left hand. While at the front in Manchuria, too, it was, for several days, feared that he had lost his life—his death being actually reported. He had got cut off from the Japanese Army during one of the numerous skirmishes, and it was two days before he succeeded in gotting back to the Japanese lines.
The London "Daily Chronicle" was represented by Mr. George Lynch, who was understood to say that he had gathered from the Japanese Generals and officers on the field that they all expected a long and bitter struggle for which every preparation had been made.
"Collier's Weekly " was also represonted by Mr. Richard Harding Davis, the well-known novelist and playwright, while "Scribner's Magazine" was represented by Mr. John Fox, of New York.
Both Mr. Davis and Mi. Palmer were accompanied by their wives, though how far ladies went with them to the front— all—I do not happen to know. One thing about which my Japanese friend was extremely gratified and appre-dative, was the fact that wherever the Japanese soldier was alluded to by the war correspondents, it was always in the most flattering terms. It seemed to be thoroughly agreed that, not only did he fight with the greatest bravery and he. raisin, but also that he fought fairly and treated his prisoners well; while his endurance, mobility, and sobriety were marvels, Mr. Knight went so far as to that, in the course of all the campaigns he had over been through, he had
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.