Directory_and_Chronicle_1910 — Page 717

CHINA

741

the officials in Northern Honan; where, though many heartrending crimes and inurders were committed, the story was mitigated by the fact that there were numerous escapes, and that many officials and gentry jeopardized their own lives in attempts to save the fugitives. The Governors of Shantung and Shen-si especially distinguished themselves in their zeal for humanity. It was entirely due to their powerful protection of foreigners that the number of murders and outrages was restricted to less than two hundred and Sober estimates have been made that over 10,000 natives fifty European lives. perished; most of these were Christians or the kinsmen of Christians, but in vast numbers of cases greed and family and personal feuds prompted the denouncing of pagans as Christians.

Reference is elsewhere made to the actions of the Boxers in detail see notes under the articles "Peking," "Tientsin" "Taku" and "Peitaiho"), so they need only be sum marised here. The attacks on the Mission stations began in May; those on the Lu-han Railway at the end of May, and the beginning of June. The Boxers appeared in the Capital in force on June 13th, and in Tientsin three days before this date. Official collusion was from the first suspected by the terms in which the Imperial Edicts dealt with the movers of the sedition; later on this suspicion became certainty when the Imperial Officers who dealt with it vigorously were ignored or reproved for their zeal. The Boxers completely overawed the civil power when they appeared in the great cities, and openly declared their intention to expel or extirpate the foreigners. At first attempts to carry out their programme took the form of incendiarism, e, to the destruction of Mission premises; the agents were entirely confined to themselves and the city canaille, the Imperial troops only joining in after the attack on and capture of the Taku forts on June 17th. The Tientsin Settlements were attacked on the night and morning of June 15th and 16th by the Boxers alone; on the afternoon of the 17th, the Settlements were severely shelled by the regular troops. Communi- cation was re-established with Taku on the 23rd, and the siege in part raised in the open. The Great Eastern Arsenal was taken on June 27th; while the first pitched battle preceded the seizure of the Western Arsenal on July 9th; the native City was carried by assault on the 14th, when the Viceroy Yu-Lu and General Nieh met their deaths the former by suicide, the latter by a shell.

Boxers began to appear in the streets of Peking in force on June 13th, and openly assumed a hostile attitude to foreigners from that date. Until the 20th of the same month they confined their attention to acts of incendiarism and to the persecution of native Christians and people known to be associated with foreigners. The Imperial troops joined forces with the Boxers, and opened fire on the Legations on the 20th. The siege continued with various vicissitudes until August 14th, when it was raised by the entrance of a column of Allied forces, 20,000 strong, which had left Tientsin about the beginning of the month and had fought two pitched battles at Pei-tsang and Yang- tsung on August 4th and 6th, besides numerous small engagements and the capture of Tung-chow en passant. The flight of the Imperial family and the Court began on August 13th. The Court entered Shan-si by the northern passes, and then viá Tai-yuen-fu its progress continued to the ancient capital Si-an, where it remained för the greater part of 1901. It left in October.

During July, August and September, 1900, troops were poured into North China by all the European Powers, America and Japan, and, with an eye to contingencies, large forces were deviated to the Yangtsze, and landed in Shanghai. The Governors and Viceroys of the Central and Southern Provinces had unceasingly protested against the Manchu and Reactionary policy in Peking, and, it is suspected, refused to carry out the secret edicts directing attacks on foreigners. In any case they succeeded in hold- ing the turbulent elements in their satrapies well in check, and in keeping the peace.

An important event in 1901 was the death of Li Hung-chang, who died in October at Tientsin, at the age of 79 years, whilst engaged in settling matters between his Government and the Powers.

The situation during 1902 gradually improved, and the troops of the Allies were withdrawn, with the exception of about 3,000 men, who continued to act as a permanent guard to the Legations in the capital and in Tientsin with outposts at Fengtai, Lutai, Shanhaikwan, etc. These are now being gradually withdrawn.

In November, 1908, occurred the death of the Emperor Kwang Hsu, followed a day later by the death of the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi. This news was unexpected, and there was consequently much suspicion for a time regarding the cause of the dual demise. The public were soon satisfied, however, that the deaths were due to perfectly natural

causes.