The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-21


even at the cost of great privation than to
give the enemy time to rally or concen-
trate his forces.
There will be no general advance from
Chang-hua until the middle or end of Sep
tember by which time the Japanese forces
in Formosa will have been brought to a
strength of from 10000 to $4,000 of all
arms, including the whole of the Second
(SendaD Division and portions of the First
(Tokio) and Fourth osaka divisions. A
campaign on large scale will then be
undertaken, and it is expected that the
pacifcation of the island will be accom-
plished before the close of November.
Lieutenant. GeneralVis Takashima,
the newly appointed Vice Gen.
eral of Formosa, and commandment chief
of the forces there, left Toxic for his post
on September 1. 1t had been supposed
that on his arrival in the island, the Gov
ernor General, Count Kabayama, would
return home, but no such intention exists
at present.
The japanese have dispatched railway
corps to Formosa for the purpose of con-
structing line between Sinchu and Chang
hua, distance of sixty-seven miles. The
line will afterward be extended to Tainan,
the capital, the north and south of the
island being thus brought into railway
communication.
mutiny on an alarming scale broke
out in the Yaoh-a barracks at Tientsin on
August Is. The cause of the soldiers ris-
ing was the perennial trouble in China,
dishonest appropriation of the mems pay
by their officers. About hundred officers,
non-commissioned officers and non-com-
Blatant officials were massacred before
peace could be restored. Rumor
WI, among the number of the sufferers,
but that proved incorrect. 1t was appre
hended that the trouble might spread to
the foreign settlement, and preparations
were made by the British gunboat Swift
and the Japanese gunboat Chokai to land
marines, if necessary, but the mutiny was
quelled in time to obviate such IS step.
Great variety has been felt for some time
about the health of the Crown Prince of
Japan. An attack of typhoid fever, sue
ceeded by other complications, threatened
to defy medical skill, but happily his I'M
perial Highness is now on the road to
recovery. His constitution has always
been weak, but his moral endowments being
far above the average, the nation would
regard his death as a serious calamity.
The Chinese Government has consented
to allow the establishment of a German
settlement at Hankow. A piece of land
has been selected for the purpose outside
the Tungchia gate. 1t is to be surveyed
by the Hanyang project and the district
magistrate, and report will be sent in to
the Viceroy at Marking when the work is
completed.
The Chinese officials appointed to in
vestigate the circumstances of the Kucheng
massacre displayed at the outset spirit
of great obstructiveness. 1t has always
been believed that when capital punish
ment had to be inflicted in China to ex-
plate the murder of foreigners, criminals
already condemned to death on some
other count were produced by the man
darins and substituted for the true assas-
sins. and that if such persons were not
immediately forthcoming, mendicants or
poor coolies were induced to sell their
lives, proceeding never difficult in China.
To guard against any repetition of such
farces the foreign Consuls demanded per-
mission to attend the Investigations at
Kucheng and to sift the evidence for
themselves. To that the Chinese strenu-
ously objected and a long delay resulted,
as the matter had to be referred to Picking.
The necessary authority having been at
length obtained, the commission COM
menced its sittings. Forty "Vegetarians"
had been arrested, and little difficulty was
found in convicting eleven of them. The
Chinese seem to be acting IN good faith.
but the utter want of feeling shown by
them in the presence of the relics of the
unhappy victims of the massacre, and the
levity with which they treat the whole
affair, have created a very bad impression
among foreigners.
A number of the "Vegetarians" that
assembled at Kucheng to perpetrate the
massacre are said to be starving in their
mountain retreats near Kucheng. Only at
night do they venture to descend to the
plains in search of food.
The report that the house of the Rev.
Mr.. Stewart at Kucheng was rifled by Chi
nese soldiers while the massacre of it's in
mates was In progress turns out to be per-
fectly true. The soldiers tried to put the
blame on the Waterman, but the evidence
Whether the Government will be induced
to punish these ruffians or not is very
problematical
1t is now known that as far back as last
March the "Vegetarians' were plotting
the outrages that eliminated in such a
terrible catastrophe four months later. An
alarm reached Kucheng on the 9th OF
March that vegetarian" raid upon the
Christians in the city in particular, and
upon the citizens in general was contem-
plated, and steps were taken to remove the
native Christians from the surrounding
districts into the town, the gates of which
were closed, and defensive measures of
a most defective character were adopted.
Indeed the story of that time as told by
Mr.. Stewart himself shows that the town
and all it's inhabitants were at the mercy
of any band of raiders. This experience
confirms the often enunciated theory that
if the warnings furnished by events were
acted upon by Chinese officials with any
promptitude and vigor. most, if not all, of
the catastrophes that disfgure the pages
of China's international history would be