220
[Chusan]: "We have allowed people to take away their property and then follow after it," he complained. "So here we are, having captured a large and wealthy town in a deserted place, and unable to get for our money even a little tea, sugar or common oil of the coarsest quality; and we cannot get a labourer to work for us out of the thousands that were here a month ago. I presume such a thing was never before heard of in the annals of war."34
Kidnapping and the Maltreatment of Prisoners
One feature of War as waged by the Chinese was deprecated in the strongest terms. This was what they saw as the despicable and underhand practice of kidnapping and killing unwary soldiers and camp followers. Lieutenant Oughterlony styles it “a system of warfare, if the term may be so applied, so repugnant to the feelings of civilized nations.”35 It was especially so for those whose friends were its objects.
Writing to his sister, Lieutenant Orlando Bridgeman of the 98th Regiment, recounted a near successful attempt near camp in Chusan upon two brother officers who had unthinkingly gone too far into the country. What "pity" he felt for the Chinese on account of their heavy losses in battle was now lost, he said, "since they proved so dreadfully treacherous" with their kidnapping on Chusan.36 It was the same at Ningpo. As many as 40 men were abducted in the later stages of its occupation, by means of offering them the potent native liquor and women.37
Neither were civilians to be spared. W. C. Milne, the missionary referred to above, was afterwards told that he himself had been the subject of such a plan in the spring of 1842, and in recounting this added that, “If I mistake not, it was (and I may add is now) the only effective plan the Chinese adopted for annoying their foreign aggressors."38 Ouchterlony, too, styled it "an effectual method of annoyance."
1139
Indeed, kidnapping had been official policy since the early period of the War, encouraged by a widely distributed placard and a published scale of monetary rewards, beginning with the Plenipotentiary himself, Captain Elliot.40
The harsh and inhumane treatment, and worse, inflicted by
220
[Chusan]: "We have allowed people to take away their property and then follow after it," he complained. "So here we are, having captured a large and wealthy town in a deserted place, and unable to get for our money even a little tea, sugar or common oil of the coarsest quality; and we cannot get a labourer to work for us out of the thousands that were here a month ago. I presume such a thing was never before heard of in the annals of war."*34
Kidnapping and the Maltreatment of Prisoners
One feature of War as waged by the Chinese was deprecated in the strongest terms. This was what they saw as the despicable and underhand practice of kidnapping and killing unwary soldiers and camp followers. Lieutenant Oughterlony styles it “a system of warfare, if the term may be so applied, so repugnant to the feelings of civilized nations.”35 It was especially so for those whose friends were its objects.
Writing to his sister, Lieutenant Orlando Bridgeman of the 98th Regiment, recounted a near successful attempt near camp in Chusan upon two brother officers who had unthinkingly gone too far into the country. What "pity" he felt for the Chinese on account of their heavy losses in battle was now lost, he said, "since they proved so dreadfully treacherous" with their kidnapping on Chusan.36 It was the same at Ningpo. As many as 40 men were abducted in the later stages of its occupation, by means of offering them the potent native liquor and women.37
Neither were civilians to be spared. W. C. Milne, the missionary referred to above, was afterwards told that he himself had been the subject of such a plan in the spring of 1842, and in recounting this added that, “If I mistake not, it was (and I may add is now) the only effective plan the Chinese adopted for annoying their foreign aggressors."38 Ouchterlony, too, styled it "an effectual method of annoyance."
1139
Indeed, kidnapping had been official policy since the early period of the War, encouraged by a widely distributed placard and a published scale of monetary rewards, beginning with the Plenipotentiary himself, Captain Elliot.40
The harsh and inhumane treatment, and worse, inflicted by
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.