A Secret Agent in Port Arthur by Wirt Gerrare

Possibly the partial military evacuations of Newchwang were of the nature of rehearsals for the real event which took place in the small hours of the morning of July 25, after the heavy firing throughout the day. I saw the Censor at Yingkow as late as ten o'clock on Sunday night; he had no news, and was amusing himself with his fiddle. About two hours later, when the Japanese had rushed the trenches at Taipingling, twenty-five miles away, there came a telephone warning for all Russian Government employees to hurry away, as the evacuation of Newchwang had been ordered. By dawn there was scarcely a Russian soldier left in the town, only four of the military police.

I was early astir, but the Press Censor had fled; he had taken with him his fiddle, and some one else's easy chair, and so many things that in their quarters there was nothing left for the Chinese to steal. Then I went to the telegraph office at Yingkow, but the Russian official notices remained posted, and the clerks would not accept uncensored messages for transmission. I sent the news down by train, for this day there were no scrutineers in Russian employ, no Russian postman accompanied the mail.