There was one item of somewhat sensational interest most adroitly launched. An officer at Yingkow heard from two army officers who had arrived from Liaoyang that an American newspaper correspondent, who had gone there without having his papers in order, had sought refuge with a countrywoman of his resident there, and that for harbouring him she had been flogged by the order of the commander-in-chief. The alleged victim was a Miss Alice Clery, who had been for some years in the Orient, and was one of the few persons of American nationality who were heart and soul with the Russians in their struggle against the Japanese. At Port Arthur, in order to be with them, she had volunteered for Red Cross work, and through the influence of friends on the Viceroy’s staff had been found quarters at Liaoyang. That much was true, and it was also a fact that the correspondent had made her acquaintance. The remainder of the story was open to question. The manner in which it was started was quite clever. In course of general conversation with a British trader in Yingkow, a hint was dropped by an army officer that British and American correspondents, and those who helped them, had not much favour at the hands of General Kuropatkin. The man mentioned the fact to a resident, who told me jocosely what I might expect. Thereupon I interviewed the officer, who, most reluctantly, informed me of what his brother officers had told him. He believed them. It was a possible story. He did not, and could not, vouch for the facts, as he was not at Liaoyang at the time, but he knew this, that, and the other which corroborated everything he had been told. I went to the censor and asked him to be good enough to straighten out the story, if I had the details wrong. He had heard the officers tell the same story, heard that the woman received twenty-five lashes, and had no reason to doubt the statement at all. He deplored the occurrence, but it was not for him to question any action of the commander-in-chief. Here was a story which an American journalist could turn into a rousing article--and it was vouched for sufficiently. It lacked probability. Russian officers would not be guilty of such barbarity. Sooner or later such an occurrence would be known, for there were American military attachés and newspaper correspondents at Liaoyang, and when it was known, the political consequences would be such that any officer guilty of an act of that kind would have trouble. For every offence, short of crime, which a foreigner of either sex may commit the Russians have one penalty--the offender is banished from Russian territory. It is a short and effective way out of many difficulties, one unlikely to lead to a diplomatic incident or cause future trouble. This report needed more evidence than hearsay to substantiate an event so improbable, and the correspondents again saved themselves.