Evening star., 1905-10-26
WAR IN THE FAR EAST
CONTINUED from Eleventh Page.)

| Continued from Eleventh Page.)
desire to inspect the credentials of Mr..
| Hull. Mr.. Hull had none.
Very sorry Capt. Okada said, but Mr..
| Hull cannot stay here
| He does not want to stay explained.
| He Is going back tomorrow.
" Has he a permit to returnT
| No, but you can give him one IL 1t Is
| needed
" He had no permit to come How can
give him a permit to return7'
| " Then he will stay here, IL necessary
| sion.'
This puzzle of The Lady or the Tiger
| was solved by sending Hull back with an
escort of gendarmes. Officially, Hull did
| not exist.
His Social Status.
Another example of red tape consisted
or the documents that foreigners were COM
PEELED to sign whenever they turned a cor
! ner. Richard Little of the Chicago Daily
News had one of these thrust upo nhim
when he was taken prisoner at the battle
OF Mukden. Among the questions was,
what is your social status?' Rather hard
Tor an American. Little wrote:
My social status is number one I
once dined with Bath House John, and on
! another occasion was handed a cigar in
the hallway of the residence of Mrs. Pot
ter Palmer
This valuable contribution to the arch
ives of the Japanese government is said to
have been source of much curiosity to
the war Office
Speaking of misrepresenta lions prob-
abiy there was none funnier than some
statements In a book written by DR.. Sea-
men. The book was christened From To-
kyo Through Manchuria At the time 1t
was published DR.. Seamen had not been
through Manchuria, but only to some of
the bases in Korea, and to Newchwang
He compared the work of the Japanese
medical department with that done by the
American army in the Philippines, and to
the discredit of the American army He
said that the japanese kept villages clean
er, etc. The japanese medical staff did
excellent work but il is no reflection upon
them to say that all my observations con-
vinced me that they had much to learn
from the medical corps of the American
army.
"One who was actually at the front must
read with considerable amusement Dr.
Seamen' s descriptions of how the wells
were placarded and how the soldiers al
these things were planned by the medical
staff, but between theories planned at
headquarters and actual performances in
the field there is often a great difference.
The Japanese soldiers, when they were
thirsty, like all other soldiers, drank any
water they could get, boiled or unboied
from officially placarded wells or from
brooks, barnyard wells or mudholes The
health of the army was unusually good
but some of the credit for that is due to
the splendid physique of the men and the
wonderful climate of Manchuria.
The Finish of War Correspondents.
This war has seen the finish of war cor
respondents. Modern methods of communi-
cation are responsible for this. There is al
most nothing correspondent can send that
will not be of service to intelligent
enemy. The London Times had a telegram
from Chemulpo at the beginning of the war
that would have told the Russians all they
needed to know, If they had been clever
enough to take advantage of it. 1t gave the
numbers and organizations of the troops,
the number and kinds of the guns, every
thing the best secret service would have
been most anxious to get. Another thing
is that correspondent on a battle line
hundred miles long is about as useful to his
paper, for sending results quickly, as a
single snow fake would be for cooling the
temperature of the place which Gen. Sheri-
dan preferred to Texas. He can see only
what occurs in his immediate neighborhood
and l can testify that sometimes he does
not see much of that because he is en-
gagged in trying to burrow underground and
thinking what fool he Is to be there
This war was a war of big battles and
between battles there was practically moth
ing a correspondent could publish that
would not be useful to the enemy The
policy of the japanese was to keep the cor
respondents muzzled and gagged between
battles ana when the nght1ng was really
begun to turn them loose under the care of
their shepherd to go wherever they wish
ed within the lines of the army to which
they were attached. In the beginning the
professional English war correspondents
were much in evidence. They were disposed
to treat the American newspaper men with
considerable condescension. Five corre-
spondents stayed through to the finish of
the battle of Mukden. Four of them were
Americans and the other was an Englishman,
MacCulloch of the New York Herald who
saw more fighting than did any other cor
respondent except Frederick Mccormick
of Reuters. When there is some nice little
colonial war we will see the famous Brit
fsh war correspondent, with all his medals
occupying the center of the stage The late
affair was too strenuous for him. Besides
he not placed on the pedestal he
thought himself entitled to, so he took his
togs and went home. On second thought
that is unfair to some men like Knight
who would have stayed to the finish, If their
papers had not recalled them, but the pa
II tionizing way in which certain of the Eng
lish treated such men as Frederick Palmer
Davis, John Fox John Bass, George Ken
non and Jack London was amusing
There Is no doubt that the other armies
Of the world will take hint from the ex-
perience of the japanese with correspond
ents.
Status of Attaches.
Another subject that probably is engag-
ing the attention of military men Is the sta