The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-18
LAPS DISGUISED.
SPIES THAT PENETRATE EVEN
 INTO MANCHURIAN WILDS.

Russians Know it, but Can't Prevent it -Experiences of a Japanese Who Had Played Many ROIes-Red Beard
 Bandits HeIp-Their Organization.
 It is no secret that there are Japan ese in disguise as Chinese going with immunity among the real Chinese all over the Russian lines, as coolies or navvies, barrack builders, trench dig gers, peddlers, hewers of wood and drawers of water, vendors of beer and cigarette and cheap pocket knives and everything else imaginable. The Rus- sians know it says the Singapore Straits Budget but cannot prevent 1t, for there is absolutely no telling Japanese rom Chinese if made up alike, and the question cannot be solved by excluding all, for the Russians cannot get along without the Chinese. The British Ill India without any Hindoos would not be more helpless, Though we hear so much of Russian emigrants and peas ant soldiers pouring into this part or the world, they seem to have been sWal- lowed up for when there is work to be done it has to wait till Chinese can be got. Without them the Russians seem unable even to carry on the war. And when Chinese are admitted one never knows which one among them may be a disguised Japanese.
 Of course, as long as he is in Man churia he keeps his secret as closely as the grave, for his life probably depends on it. But having got clearly away he likes to be rid of pigtail and dirty garb, and become once more clean and de- cent Japanese. Usually the transfor- nation is effected in private, so that none but his inmates know, for at a l lodging house used by both national sties, nobody keeps count or notices II | a Chinaman goes in or Japanese | comes out, So it is rather curious work getting on the track of these men from Manchuria and finding out anything about thern
 I Of course they do not reveal their identity and tell all they know to any one; but, on the other hand s,even the most discreet man can have an ac- quaintance or two, with whom he may converse about his adventures, so long as he is only telling of things which can be seen and known by all. It is no se- | cret that hawkes. go from village to viii llage in Manchuria, selling buttons and tapes, and doing other harmless neces- sary business, even in regions infested by the Hung-hu-tze, the Red Beard Bandits. It is no secret that man can | join the bandits, raiding towns. stealing whole herds of cattle cutting telegraph wires and tearing u prails to baffle the pursuing forces and disappearing as swiftly and mysteriously as DeWet in the Transvaal or Aguinaldo in the Philippines. And it is well known how, in the last resort, if hotly pressed, the l bandits can either make terms and share the loot with the Cossaeks or re- sume the role of peaceful peasants and appear in the fields working as inno- gently as any yokel that ever lived on a farm.
 The peasantry do not as rule betray them, for several reasons. First, from the fear of vengeance; secondly, be- cause the Hung g-hu-tze rather follow
 
 as friends of the poor Gas matter of poliey1; and finally because the Cos sacks themselves are worse brigands than the Hung -hu-tze Soldiers chief ly prey on the poor and helpless, leav- ing the influential people carefully alone. The people in this part of the world simply say: Tt is all the same whether we have Chinese officials or foreign, for we are robbed in either case. Chinese or foreign soldiers are all ruf1ins and swashbucklers alike, bully us, take what they will and pay half or nothing, do what they will with women, and who can resist? Heaven wills that human beings must suffer l certain evils" That is the attitude of the Chinese at large.
 Of the Japanese who have been in Manchuria in Chinese guise, some find their way back via Shanhaikwan and tientsin some via Corea and some by steamer from Newchwang. There have
 been a dozen steamers leaving Newch-
 wang since the ice broke up, and they took away over 15,000 Chinese, artisans, tradesmen, farmers and so on, all anx-
 
 dangers, and troubles and it's stoppage
 of business. Out of the 15,000 perhaps
 there might be five disguised Japanese. I do not know and merely guess. 1
 really know of only one.
 He belonged to Osaka and had been carpenter, coal dealer, bankrupt, rail-
 way clerk, school teacher, steward on
 steamer, had been in jail--of course 4 not for any fault of his own-and then
 became a tourists guide for European
 and Americans doing the sights of Ja-
 pan. He was in Chino-Japanese War
 in 1894, but would not say in what ca- pacity, though I verified his knowledge of the campaign and of some details
 that would not be known to a man who
 was not there. From. 1895 his move
 ments must remain his own secret, up
 to the Boxer time when he was again
 in "a certain Japanese formula for say
 ing, Don't ask too much.'
 Since 1900 this man had been in va
 rious parts of Manchuria. Sometimes
 he went as a Japanese, but at other times it was convenient for purposes of trade with the natives to pass as one