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Chinese officials upon shipwrecked Britons and Indians, and upon captives generally, was strongly condemned throughout the Expeditionary Force. There was universal outrage at the treatment accorded to the survivors of the brig Kite, including the wife of its Master who had been lost in the wreck.
"Where shall I find language sufficiently strong to execrate the beings that inflicted the following cruelties on wrecked and starving fellow creatures?” asked Commander Bingham in his account.41 The terrible treatment of Captain Stead of the Pestonjee transport, ending in his death, excited similar outrage;42 as did, when they became known, the brutalities and executions visited upon many of the mainly Indian personnel on board another transport, the Nerbudda, cast away on Formosa.43
Poor treatment of Chinese by Other Chinese
However, during the course of the War, many British officers came to realize that ill treatment of prisoners by the Chinese authorities was the norm in dealing with their own population. They also came to see that some Chinese treated their fellow-countrymen very badly. Upon taking Chinese towns and cities, they were astonished at the Chinese mobs that came out to loot them, and did so much more effectively than the British troops who had captured them. Similarly, during naval operations along the coast the crews of British warships saw how ruthlessly Chinese pirates treated peaceful traders and harmless villagers.
British commanders' readiness to attack the pirate ships always won the heartfelt appreciation of Chinese fishermen and country people. Bingham cites a good example. Some fishermen had pointed out three pirate junks off the mouth of the Pei-Ho. A colleague's subsequent encounter with them, upon his boats' crews being attacked, led the sufferers to express "the most lively feelings of gratitude for being delivered from the vagabonds who had been for some time plundering them."44 Bingham also mentions the effrontery of several pirate craft that had hoped to evade attention by anchoring near his ship but had been informed against by the people they had been plundering.44
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Chinese officials upon shipwrecked Britons and Indians, and upon captives generally, was strongly condemned throughout the Expeditionary Force. There was universal outrage at the treatment accorded to the survivors of the brig Kite, including the wife of its Master who had been lost in the wreck.
"Where shall I find language sufficiently strong to execrate the beings that inflicted the following cruelties on wrecked and starving fellow creatures?,” asked Commander Bingham in his account.a1 The terrible treatment of Captain Stead of the Pestonje transport, ending in his death, excited similar outrage:42 - as did, when they became known, the brutalities and executions visited upon many of the mainly Indian personnel on board another transport, the Nerbudda, cast away on Formosa.43
Poor treatment of Chinese by Other Chinese
However, during the course of the War, many British officers came to realize that ill treatment of prisoners by the Chinese authorities was the norm in dealing with their own population. They also came to see that some Chinese treated their fellow-country-men very badly. Upon taking Chinese towns and cities, they were astonished at the Chinese mobs that came out to loot them, and did so much more effectively than the British troops who had captured them. Similarly, during naval operations along the coast the crews of British warships saw how ruthlessly Chinese pirates treated peaceful traders and harmless villagers.
British commanders' readiness to attack the pirate ships always won the heartfelt appreciation of Chinese fishermen and country people. Bingham cites a good example. Some fishermen had pointed out three pirate junks off the mouth of the Pei-Ho. A colleague's subsequent encounter with them, upon his boats' crews being attacked, led the sufferers to express "the most lively feelings of gratitude for being delivered from the vagabonds who had been for some time plundering them."4 Bingham also mentions the effrontery of several pirate craft that had hoped to evade attention by anchoring near his ship but had been informed against by the people they had been plundering.4
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