An American correspondent on the Japanese side informed me that he estimated the newspaper representatives there to have cost their papers in the aggregate over half a million yen, and it is certain that those on the Russian side cost theirs a quarter of a million roubles, in all £75,000--an outlay quite disproportionate to the value received. It must be remembered that the expenses of a correspondent are very heavy, and that ordinarily he is well remunerated for his services. Even in the China coast ports, for instance Chifu, where there is no likelihood of attack and war prices consequently do not rule, the out of pocket expenses of a news-gatherer exceeded £300 in one month, and this exclusive of the cost of telegraphing. The remuneration of a correspondent at the port--not a man sent out specially, but a merchant’s clerk appointed in lieu of a journalist of experience--is £50 a month. This may seem high pay, but in North China salaries are at a higher level than at home and a well educated, competent, trustworthy man, if a British subject, rarely expects less, for even a soldier appointed as a railway guard receives from £15 to £18 a month, and has free quarters at each end of his day’s run and free meals whilst on his train. In the war area, at Yingkow for instance, within the Russian lines, although Newchwang is a treaty port, provisions and all necessaries were at war prices, owing to the Russians buying all they could secure for transmission to Liaoyang. The cost of living was double and treble that current at Tientsin and Chifu, or even the much nearer Shanhaikwan--all being outside the war area. Some correspondents--indeed most--received the salaries of correspondents at the theatre of war, usually upwards of £100 a month, whilst the representatives of American newspapers, weekly periodicals, and even monthly magazines, received very much more. The American newspapers are sending out additional men for the approaching campaign, but judging from the results already obtained it would appear at first sight that for the accounts of events the public must depend upon the official telegrams and the reports given by the news agencies’ services. This should not be so. I have proved that the official notifications can be beaten in time to even such near points as the China Treaty ports, and official messages to America and Europe require so much longer for transmission that the difference in point of time would be even more appreciable.