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THE BOXER OUTBREAK.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
as has often been suggested of late, there seems no promise of stability, nor is there a likelihood that the Chinese would be satis- fied, or that they would remain, for all their past acquiescence, loyal to the dynasty which has brought them to the present state of humiliation.
(Daily Press. 8th June.)
Dowager removed, who will feel confident that the nominal Emperor has the strength, (Daily Press 5th June.)
though he undoubtedly has the desire, to The Boxer trouble has at length got govern justly and firmly? Could he stand beyond a threat. Open warfare is pro- alone, the outlook would not be hopeless. ceeding in the province of Chihli, and foreig-But in a joint guarantee of the Powers, such ners have had to fight for their lives--have even, it is to be feared, lost their lives in a struggle against tremendous odds. Our telegram this morning, it is true, corrects the previous report that four of a party of British, American, and Belgian refugees had been killed while fighting their way from Paoting-fu down the Peiho River to the nearest place of safety, Tientsin. But the amended version of the news may be still The situation in the North grows daily more worse, for seven of the unfortunate party of uncertain and alarming. For several days Belgian railway engineers are reported past we have received by wire intelligence missing, and small hope seems to be enter which goes to show that the conspiracy or tained of their escape from the fanatics into rebellion of the party known as the Boxers whose hands they have fallen. And yet it in North China is ripening to a head, and is barely a month ago since Mr. CONGER, that its fruition means a menace to foreigners the United States Minister at Peking, cabled generally. On the 1st inst., fires, believed | (as the last mail, tells us) that "he had rea- to have been the work of incendiaries, were son to rely upon the assurances given by the reported from Tientsin; it was next announced Chinese Government as to the orders issued that the Paoting-fu refugees were on their for the full protection of foreigners." Still way to Tientsin, but seven were missing and less time ago the Foreign Ministers at Peking on the 3rd inst. it was stated that twenty-three failed to see any reason for concerted action. Belgians had arrived in Tientsin wounded, They have changed their minds since, but after awful sufferings on the way. Next, un- too late. The Boxers have been allowed to der date of the 5th inst., we learn that more grow too strong. They have killed native troops were being landed at Tientsin and the Christians with impunity and defeated such residents are all armed; the railway service Imperial troops as were sent against them.
to Peking was irregular; the missions at A Peking correspondent writing to Shanghai Paoting-fu were in great danger; and the on the 25th ult. told of one of these victories, deaths of Messrs. ROBINSON and NORMAN, as well as of the flight of a magistrate from of the Church of England Mission at Yung- Cho-chow, thirty-five miles from the capital, ching had been confirmed. On Thursday ames- for the reason that he was obnoxious to the sage from Shanghai, elsewhere published, an- rioters. The way in which the Imperial nounced that all intercourse between Tien- Government has treated the Boxers is suffitsin and the capital has been stopped since ciently illustrated by the Imperial Decree which we publish elsewhere, in the trans- lation telegraphed to our Shanghai contem- porary, the North-China Daily News. The Boxers from this remarkable document would appear to be a loyalist society, into whose ranks have crept by stealth certain evil characters, who have made use of the patriotic organisation to create trouble little short of actual rebel- lion. To cope with these ruffians the Gen- eralissimo is ordered, in the usual Chinese fashion, to capture the ringleaders, while the local authorities are commanded to pro- tect the Christians. The facts that the Im- perial troops have already been defied, and that the local authorities, if not corrupt and in collusion with the Boxers, are obviously powerless to do anything against them, are calmly disregarded. The Empress, too, as we read yesterday, is very much distressed at the massacre of Christians and has her- self provided coffins for them. Is this a mere farce, or is it a token of childishness, or rather dotage? It is difficult indeed to decide; nor for practical purposes does it much matter. Affairs some time ago reached a point beyond the limits of toleration, but the habitual optimism of Foreign Ministers at Peking blinded them apparently to the fact, thereby giving China a little more rope wherewith to hang herself. She has not missed the opportunity, and consequently the time for mere" diplomatic pressure "has passed.
There is no question of an isolated attack on a missionary; there is an organised anti-foreign crusade, though the principal victims so far are, it seems, the Belgian engineers engaged on the section of the Lu-Han line beyond Paoting-fu That their sufferings while fighting their way through in the direction
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[June 9, 1900. TUAN, a member of the Imperial Family, and that their apparently strange and erratic movements really cover a carefully conceived project for driving foreigners out of China altogether. This is by no means improbable. The Manchus are most of them still quite unable to realise the extent of foreign power, and are ready to believe that a well laid plan would easily result in the ejectinent of the hated intruders from the sacred soil of the Celestial Empire. If this idea still lingers in Peking seems to be the fact the sooner it is removed the better. There is little chance of that result being attained, however, if counsels such as those attributed to the American Minister were allowed to prevail. He is reported to have said, when the French Minister proposed that troops should be. imported for the protection of the Legations, that it would be better to demand the. complete reform of the Police system at Peking, that he thought the Boxers were being drilled for fun, rather than from any idea of injuring foreigners, and he did not like to hurt the feelings of the Empress by bringing up guards to the capital! Fort- unately he was unsupported, and, none of his colleagues being fatuous enough to share in his scruples, the guards were sent for, and the lives of the foreigners in the Legations thereby rendered comparatively secure. The situation is, however, still far from satisfactory, the air of Peking is charged with electricity, and a general feeling of unrest prevails throughout the provinces of Chilli and Shantung. There seems to be no Chinese Minister at the present moment with any vertebra; the Tsung-li Yamen consists for the most part of a pack of more or less ignorant nobodies, whose one aim and end is to invent excuses for doing nothing. JUNG LU is perhaps the one man who has either the head to conceive or the hand to carry out any state measure, and he halts between two opinions: fear of the Empress and loyalty to KWANG HSU. The EMPEROR himself is well-meaning but feeble, crushed by the events of the past three years, and restrained by the fear that he has no sufficient backing.
the 5th inst., and that 600 European troops with six guns have arrived in Tientsin, while a Legation telegram that night brought news of the landing of nearly 1,000 men. Pre- vious information by letter stated that the Boxers have burned down two or three sta- tions and damaged part of the Tientsin-Peking Railway, have attacked and wounded many of the foreign employés, and destroyed some miles of the telegraph line. Foreigners have been insulted in Peking and made to feel that their lives were in danger, and when the Foreign Ministers sent for armed escorts the Chinese Authorities refused to allow them to proceed by railway until vigorous threats were used of a resort to force. The repeated representations of the Doyen of the Foreign Legations on the position and his demand that the Boxers should be suppressed met with no real response from the Imperial Govern- ment for some time, and when at length an Imperial Decree was issued on the subject of the Boxer outrages it was so worded that, while nominally ordering the Commandant of the Peking Gendarmerie, the Governor of Peking, the Viceroy of Chihli and other authorities to combine to arrest the distur- bers of the peace it left a wide loophole for the escape of all offenders in the following characteristic instruction "As for these persons who have been found merely to have followed in the wake of or encouraged the rioters without actually joining in the riots, these also must be strictly warned from doing so again and immediately dis- "persed on pain of condign punishment!"
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This Decree was only issued by the Em- press after repeated remonstrances from the Diplomatic Body, and it is generally be lieved that, though nominally rebellious,
This being the position of things in the capital of China, and there being apparently
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central authority strong enough to repress disorder and restore confidence, the question arises, what is to be done by the Treaty Powers? Are they to go on inde- finitely conniving at conspiracies for the personal aggrandisement of harem favourites or of corrupt Chinese mandarins?
Are they to acquiesce for ever in a state of political uncertainty rendering necessary the main- tenance of large armed forces for the pro- tection of the persons of their Ambassadors in Peking? Are they going once more to allow trade to be interrupted by the acts of conspirators encouraged in high quarters, and to condone the murder of missionaries and ill-treatment of railway engineers with the usual payment of small indemnities and the execution of a few (possi- bly innocent) coolies? Surely not. The time has arrived when some more decisive action should be taken than has hitherto satisfied our too readily placated Govern. ments. We are glad to learn through our telegraphic advices that the English papers are urging that prompt action should be taken to maintain Great Britain's prestige, and sincerely hope that such pressure will be brought to bear on Lord SALISBURY as will compel him to assert British influence in subjects have
of Tientsin have been terrible may well be the Boxer movement is directed more against | Peking. Two moto swell
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believed. Steps have now to be taken to prevent the recurrence of such events: With the present dynasty on the throne there can be no security; for, the Empress
the supporters of the Emperor KWANG been murdered-two Hsu and foreigners than against the actual long roll of victims Executive at Peking. It is stated that these men have been sheltered by Prince
Chinese prejudice and passion-and this outrage, not only. affords a pretext for, but imperatively calls
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