Of course, the freight train might have been delayed by one of hundreds of causes other than war, but it was of war, and war alone, that I was apprehensive. The American, who but on Monday evening had left Newchwang, where telegraphic news is received without intermission, informed me that there was no change in the political situation, but that he was sure there would not be war, because the Japanese were not ready, and the Russians did not want more trouble--there would be peace for years. At the next station my suspicions were increased, for on the door of the booking office was a written notice stating that telegrams could not be accepted for transmission. The reason for this order was not stated. If it were due to the cutting of the wires by the enemy, war was meant--but it was improbable that the wires would have been cut both north and south of that station, and the same reason applied if there had been an accidental breakdown on the lines of communication. Moreover, the trains were running, and they are run on a telegraphic check system, so this proved that the wires were intact. It was clearly only a peremptory discontinuance of a public service, and due either to war, or to some calamity or occurrence which had necessitated the use of the public, the railway and the government wires for State messages. I felt as certain that a state of war existed as I should have done had I heard the rifle bullets whizzing over my head and the booming of distant artillery. The irony of the position was that although I was confident hostilities had commenced, I was precluded by the very order which had given me the news from sending out any information by telegram, and there was no train north until our own returned from Port Arthur. My theory was confirmed soon afterwards by seeing a Russian military officer receive a telegram at the railway station. At Nangalin junction I should have to change trains, and, pre-supposing that a state of war already existed in the fortress of Port Arthur, it was unlikely that I should be allowed to continue my journey there if recognized as a foreigner, so I kept as much as possible to my compartment. But I need not have had any fear on that point. The news itself so astonished the officials, both railway and military, that they failed to act, and merely performed their routine work in a perfunctory manner. They neither thought nor realized in what way the outbreak of war affected the train and its passengers. Without definite instructions from some high authority, they would not act in any way different to their ordinary mode. No one took notice of anybody; women with babies, children, Japanese, were neither informed that war had begun, nor warned to remain outside the sphere of military operations, and all, at their ease and unsuspecting, ran right into the fortress during the bombardment.