Carrying out their orders.
3. The unfinished Forts, then under construction, must have been the only ones visited by the Admiral in plain clothes and without a pass, and were at the time referred to as not sufficiently advanced, in the absence of guns or replacements, to enable a visitor to pick up information of any consequence.
4. The Admiral happening to be here some time after your telegram arrived, I questioned him verbally as to what he could possibly have seen in these works under construction which would be of any material assistance to an enemy.
5. It did not profess anything more than that it could be seen we had no system pursued other than that practiced by the Russians at Vladivostock, where strangers were kept at a considerable distance from the works they were carrying out, and it was thought a "quid pro quo".
6. Now as regards the first point, the absence of secrecy was sufficiently notorious from utterances and the newspaper reports, both at home and here, besides which the information could be obtained from any intelligent Chinese man employed on the works; and as regards the second point, we at this busy commercial port have neither the powers of the Russian Commander of keeping strangers from the forts and warning the public of the thoroughfares, nor the necessary garrison to establish such a cordon as would be required to guard open works under construction.
7. Even of the fortifications of Vladivostock, if I am rightly informed, the Admiral and others seem to have seen enough...