Before eight o’clock, right away to the east, over the river above the Russian settlement at Yingkow, two miles in a bee line, a cloud of smoke arose and drifted south. Russia-town was burning. The Russians had left beyond recall, and Russian rule in the treaty port of Newchwang ended thus ingloriously. We did not know that the Russian authorities had instructed the Chinese coolies to take from the buildings everything there was, that a complete and habitable settlement might not fall into the hands of the enemy. A visit there in the forenoon showed that the instructions were being filled to the letter. A mob of rough Chinese, numbering perhaps a thousand, were demolishing the buildings for the value of the wood and other materials of which they were constructed. This rabble struggled and fought for plunder; if there was not enough to satisfy their greed there, they would need but little inducement to rush the foreign settlement for the loot it contained. There is no civic life at Newchwang. Mr. Bandinel, who had foreseen this period of anarchy, and had appealed to his fellow residents to be prepared for it, and have a programme and an organization ready for the emergency, had not been supported. It was daylight; early morning, and the Japanese forces would arrive before danger reached the town or threatened the residents in the foreign settlement. You cannot bring into being in an instant a self-governing, orderly municipality. In Newchwang the sense of common control needed to be created, and the material at hand did not promise success. The character of the foreign residents was demonstrated by incidents in the change of rulers. By mid-day the Russian flag had disappeared in Newchwang. In its place on all Government buildings flew the tricolour of France, elsewhere were the national colours of almost every European country, and the stars and stripes of the United States of America. It may as well be stated that many of these flags were flown without sufficient authority, and, unfortunately, the British flag is such a well recognized commercial asset that the right to fly it was to all intents and purposes purchased by people who had no moral claim to its protection. It must not be thought that the British Consul sold the right, allowed it as a privilege, or granted it as a favour. The people who wished to have it transferred their property, on terms, to persons registered as British subjects. Other flags were similarly procured. The Japanese and the Russian alone were not flown on that day. It is true there were exceptions. Before mid-day the Russian Administrator was flying a new consular flag of the Russian empire; in the afternoon over his residence the tricolour of France braved the breeze, and before his gates Japanese scouts planted their war-flags.