564 



The Review of Reviews. 



I.— THE MAN, 



Francis McCullagh was born in Omagh in the year 

 1874. He comes of a good old Tyrone Catholic 

 family, and was educated "by the Christian Brothers 

 and at' St. Coliunb's College in Derry. As soon as 

 he left college he took to journalism. After a brief 

 apprenticeship in Scotland and in Bradford, he 

 decided he would try his fortune further afield. 

 After twelve months' newspaper work in Britain 

 he started on his adventurous career by going to 

 Ceylon when a mere lad to see whether he could 

 find the lowest rung on the ladder which would lead 

 him to fame and fortune. He landed in Ceylon 

 with £,1 in his pocket and no engagement, but 

 he soon become attached to a local paper, on which 

 he worked for about a year. Colombo was deadly 

 dull, however, so he went on to Siam. 



HIS DEBUT IN SIAM. 



In those days — now some twenty years distant — 

 Siam was one of the Tom Tiddler's grounds of 

 international politics. Lord Rosebery, it will be 

 remembered, was within an ace of declaring war on 

 ly-ance over the Siamese question. Francis McCul- 

 lagh had gravitated by a process of natural law to the 

 centre of the danger zone for the time being. He 

 accepted the post of sub-editor of the Siam Free Press, 

 which at that time was edited by an Irishman, Mr. 

 Lillie, who also filled the post of correspondent of the 

 iV«<:' York Herald. It was just about the time three 

 French gunboats forced their way up the Menam, 

 smashing the Paknam forts ai. route and anchoring 

 near the Royal Palace, where of course the greatest 

 consternation reigned, the Crown treasure being 

 hastily transferred to bullock-carts in order to be 

 carried into the interior, and everything being in the 

 greatest confusion. Among other exciting things that 

 happened at this time, a French warship cruising m 

 the Gulf of Siam fired a shot across the bows of a 

 British cruiser steaming with lights out — an incident 

 which might have had serious consequences if the 

 French captain had not had the good sense to make 

 a humble apology. 



ADVENTURES IN BANGKOK. 



Within a month of Mr. McCuUagh's arrival in 

 Bangkok he had the good luck to find himself in sole 

 charge of the paper. His chief had offended the 

 local powers that be by the telegrams he sent to the 

 Paris Herald, describing incidents on the Eastern 

 frontier, in which the French and Siamese troops 

 were occasionally in collision. Mr. Lillie's cables 

 excited the Parisians, and by way of preventing a 

 continuance of his irritating telegrams, King Chulu- 

 longkorn expelled Mr. Lillie. .Seven days were given 

 hini to clear out of the country. On his departure 

 Francis McCullagh found himself in the proud posi- 

 tion of being editor-manager and head reiwrter of the 

 Siaiii free Press, and local correspondent of the New 

 York Herald— smdmg his despatches discreetly via 



Singapore. Speaking of these days of juvenile 

 omnipotence, Mr. McCuU.igh says ;— 



" My lack of journalistic experience brought me 

 into trouble sometimes. If I found anyone com- 

 mitting a crime I generally spoke out my mind about 

 it, whether the case was sub judice or not. As a 

 result I was a frequent visitor in the British Consular 

 Court : once because of something I wrote of a 

 Eurasian accused of abducting an Irish girl called 

 Donoghue ; on another occasion because I made an 

 onslaught on a Siamese Prince accused of maltreating 

 a little girl. On both these occasions I came before 

 Mr. Archer, then British Consul in Bangkok, and 

 now, I believe, adviser to the Siamese Legation in 

 London. 'On every occasion, somehow or other, I 

 got oft" scot-free. I don't know how Mr. Archer 

 managed it. He probably took into consideration 

 my extreme youth and my good intentions. -As a 

 result of these controver.^ies, however, the Siamese 

 Attorney-General threatened to horsewhip me, where- 

 upon, as he was a big man, I considered it necessary 

 to biiy my first revolver. The Attorney-General 

 never carried out his threat." 



JOUKNALISIXG IN JAPAN. 



When the Siam question was settled amicably 

 between England and France, Mr. McCullagh scented 

 news in the Farther East. Japan had just concluded 

 her victorious campaign against China, and although 

 peace had been signed, there was still a smell of 

 powder in the air. Leaving Bangkok, Mr. McCullagh 

 made his way to Tokyo in the hopes that he would 

 find a berth of some kind. He was not disappointed. 

 He obtained a situation as the only luiropean on the 

 staff of the Japan Times. Being in Japan, he lived 

 for the first six months as the Japanese did, subsisting 

 on rice, dispensing with chairs or tables, and, in short, 

 acclimatising himself as completely as possible. He 

 learned Japanese, and then, foreseeing the inevitable, 

 set himself to learn Russian. He found a competent 

 and obliging teacher in the Rev. Sergei Gleboff, 

 Chaplain of the Russian Legation at Tokyo. 



EDITOR IN PORT ARTHUR. 



McCullagh remained on the Japan Times for four 

 years. Then he felt the time had come for another 

 change. War was brewing in Manchuria. Russia 

 was certain that she could i)revent it. McCullagh 

 knew better, for he knew the Japanese, and it was 

 japan, not Russia, that decided the issue of peace or 

 war. He went to Port Arthur and for six months 

 served on the slaft'of a Russian paper, the Novi Krai. 

 He soon saw that war was close at hand, aw.1 that 

 when war came his chance would come with it. He 

 wrote to several London papers and to the New York 

 Herald pointing out that a conflict was certainly 

 coming. None of the English papers replied, but 

 the Ntii' York Herald, with whom he had already had 

 some connection, believed him, engaged him, and 

 wired him one thousand pounds to go on with. 



