It is pardonable of Admiral Sir J. C. D. Hay to congratulate the shareholders of Reuter’s Telegram Company on the valuable character of the company’s news, and to instance what it has achieved, but it must not be presumed that perfection has yet been reached. Mr. John Cowen, of the _China Times_, which throughout the war has had the best service of any paper, remarks that, “Sir John Hay might have added, if he had prophetic vision, that Reuter’s Agency would first record, as it did on June 23, the capture of Liaoyang by the Japanese (not taken until September 3); also that Kaiping has been captured three times by the Japanese according to the same authority. The fact remains however, that without such services we should be very badly off.” The war correspondents who had been through several campaigns, well-known authorities such as Mr. Bennet Burleigh, Mr. E. F. Knight, Mr. George Lynch, Mr. Douglas Story and Mr. H. F. Wigham, are to be counted amongst the smartest and most enterprising Britons it has ever been my fortune to meet, and their inability to surpass their former achievements is due entirely to the official restrictions they had no choice but to accept. Amongst the Americans, Mr. J. Archibald, Mr. R. H. Little, and Mr. F. Palmer are in the fore front as news correspondents, and they have the knowledge, the abilities, and the energy requisite to keep there. Of the other men, it may be said that most were of more than average ability, though some could not ride, others not write, and one was unable even to distinguish between the national flags of France and Russia. They lacked most a competent knowledge of the technics of their profession. Even those who did send perfect messages probably had learnt the knack from practical study of the best cables arriving at their offices, and knew not why they were cast in a particular form. This was a point on which the representatives of American newspapers had full knowledge.