I told him that I should like him to advise me what to do, as it was a serious matter for correspondents. He answered testily that he could not advise me. I then asked him to be good enough to make a note of the document. This he said he did not want to do, and the notice he returned to me without any comment upon the affair, but with expressions of annoyance at my appearance. In his words, I “looked as though I owned the consulate,” and not wishing to dispute proprietary rights with the man in possession, I withdrew. It was the first time I had been in Tientsin; I knew that this matter was one which would be viewed by all special correspondents as affecting their interests vitally, and it was clear that the British Consul was disinclined to interfere actively in the business, or advise me how to proceed against the powerful and influential Chinese corporation, with which H. E., the Viceroy Yuan-shi-kai himself, is directly connected. At the same time it was clear to us three correspondents that the Chinese authorities must be impressed, to a greater extent than they had shown, with our view of the inviolability of telegrams entrusted to their care. In this we thought that the local representative of the cable company might be able to render us some assistance. Mr. Fenton, in addition to being the representative of Reuter’s agency, was the director of the Tientsin Press, a company owning a daily newspaper, the _Peking and Tientsin Times_. The local manager of the Eastern Cable Company, the assistant-superintendent of the Chinese Imperial Telegraphs, and the assistant-editor of the _Peking and Tientsin Times_, all messed with Mr. Fenton--practically they all lived together--as they had a perfect right to do, whatever correspondents might think, or wish to have otherwise. We three correspondents were equal to the occasion. On three different dates we returned to the north. The local manager of the Cable Company was transferred to Chifu, and the assistant-superintendent of the Imperial Telegraphs to Peking. The _Peking and Tientsin Times_, from being indubitably pro-Russian, showed signs of wavering, and at once the _China Review_, a new daily paper, was started to voice Russian opinion in Tientsin. I have been told that the Russian authorities are claiming a heavy indemnity from the Imperial Railway Telegraphs; and if any one can obtain an indemnity, the Russians of all people are most likely to succeed. As correspondent of the _China Times_, a daily newspaper published in Tientsin, I was able to get news of the capture of Newchwang into Tientsin before the Japanese authorities received any official notification of the event, and in reporting the subsequent movements of the Japanese in the north-east, the _China Times_ was so far in advance of other announcements that I was able to satisfy myself that there was no leakage of news in the telegraph offices at Tientsin.