Chapter I: Front Matter

A SECRET AGENT IN
PORT ARTHUR

BY
WILLIAM GREENER

LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD
16 JAMES STREET, HAYMARKET
1905

PREFATORY NOTE

No one who has seen anything of the fighting between the Russians and the Japanese needs to make any apology when presenting to the public a truthful account of any events of which he was an eye-witness. Very little was actually seen by any newspaper correspondent, and every history of the war, and even of each campaign, must depend for many particulars upon official reports, with which the public are familiar. I do not profess to have attempted to compile anything like a detailed story of the siege. Instead, I have preferred to give merely my own experiences in Port Arthur and elsewhere in Manchuria and the Far East; to describe what I saw, to repeat something of what was told to me, to say what I thought of such happenings as interested me, and to write of the people whom I met when in quest of information. Some of the things I have set down may throw sidelights upon certain phases of the war, and if what I have written induces readers to think for themselves what ought to be the policy in the Far East of Great Britain and the United States, then my object will have been attained.

CONTENTS

I SECRET AGENTS, CORRESPONDENTS AND SPIES 1

II RUSSIA AND MANCHURIA BEFORE THE WAR 18

III LIFE AT PORT ARTHUR 39

IV WAR 58

V HIDING IN PORT ARTHUR 78

VI LAST DAYS IN PORT ARTHUR 114

VII THE DAY’S WORK 136

VIII IN NEUTRAL TERRITORY 158

IX CONSULS, CORRESPONDENTS AND OTHERS 179

X THE BATTLE OF TASHICHIAO 204

XI THE JAPANESE AS CONQUERORS 222

XII CONTRASTS AND COMPARISONS 233

XIII THE ATTACK ON PORT ARTHUR 249

XIV THE DEFENCE OF PORT ARTHUR 268

XV JAPAN’S REQUIREMENTS AND CHINA’S FUTURE 295

ILLUSTRATIONS

Facsimile of Author’s Instructions _frontispiece_

Facsimile of an order in the Chinese
Telegraph Office at Tientsin. _to face_ 190

The Battle of Tashichiao. 207

The Russian Retreat 216

The Fortress of Port Arthur. 269

Addendum

In order to avoid misapprehension the Author wishes to
state with reference to the notice re-produced at page 190
that he is satisfied that the notice was issued without the
knowledge or authority of Reuter’s Agency Limited, or the
Associated Press of America, and that none of the telegrams
were communicated to them.