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. CHAPTER I Secret Agents, Correspondents and Spies Secret agents as practical workers in the field of journalism are little known to the public. The character and scope of my operations may be gathered from these pages, but it is not my intention to disclose here any details of the inner workings of newspaper offices. Much of the information which reaches the editorial offices of a great journal is neither published nor intended for publication. A foreign correspondent may desire the suppression of news he sends, yet require leading articles and the policy of the paper to be shaped upon a knowledge such as he possesses of events of no immediate concern to the public. Special circumstances and extraordinary conditions sometimes require services which cannot be rendered adequately by resident foreign contributors, or known special correspondents. In my case the instructions were simple and definite. I was to journey through Russia, Siberia and Manchuria; make myself acquainted with certain facts; obtain what information I could on the subjects specified; communicate same to my paper in the manner directed; and report myself at Peking for further instructions at a given date. War between Russia and Japan was believed to be imminent; much of the information I sought related more or less closely to military affairs, but reports on these matters were neither published nor divulged. The _Times_ office wished to obtain the truth, and to be the best informed--in that following a policy which has grown into a custom. The status of the secret agent is that of a special correspondent travelling incognito. Amongst men of our own race whom I met on terms of absolute equality the chief were: officers of the British Intelligence Department; inquiry agents of the State Department, Washington; reporter-detectives of the U.S. Customs; paid spies of foreign governments, and tourists. Those of us who had a common object cultivated most the society of Russian naval and military officers and their associates; the Custom’s agents sought the shippers of contraband goods and immigrants intended for the United States, and the tourists all places of interest. When war began, the Intelligence officers withdrew to neutral territory; the secret agents and spies became avowed newspaper correspondents, and the tourists disappeared.