Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-03
BUTCHERY AND LOOT
Awful Stories Of Outrage by the
Allies in China.
RESORT TO MURDER Is SPORT
Women and Children Meet No
Mercy at TIER Hands.
WORST OFFENDERS
Copyright. 1900. by the Associated Press)

RU SSlA NS w ORSI Of EN DEIN1o
Copyright 1900. by the Associated Press)
TAKU. August 30. via Shanghai, Septem-
Der 3.-The Chinese in the Pei-ho valley are
paying dearly for the folly of their gov
eminent The retribution they are suffering
exceeds the ordinary penalties of war.
Along the river and the roads travelled by
the foreign troops between Tien Tsin and
Pekin an orgie of looting and destruction
continues, with much useless slaughter of
unoffending inhabitants While the inter-
national forces were advancing, the COM
manders, notably the Japanese, American
and British, enforced certain degree or
protection for property not needed for mill
tary purposes.
At that time most of the population, ex-
cept the fighting men, had fled. But now
the people returning to their homes,
only to find no shelter, or rice, or occupa-
ton. In the overcrowded famine-threatened
districts, away from the river. their lives
and small possessions are at the mercy OF
bands of soldiers travelling about without
officers.
The conditions prevailing leave little
ground for the favorable comparison OF
civilized warfare with Chinese methods
Robbery, ravishiAg and murder are so COM
mon that every responsible person one
meets contributes stories from personal OBJ
servation.
The walled city of Tung Chow was the
only town in the pathway of the interna-
tional forces whose people remained and
attempted to continue business. During its
occupation the Japanese patrolled the place
efficiently, protected the people and pre-
vented looting beyond the amount inevita,
BILE with an army. Gen. Chaffee stationed
a guard around the historic temple outside
the wall, forbtdding his troops to enter
The commanders encouraged the inhab-
| itantS to resume business, promising pro-
| lection to all peaceful persons.
Guards Were Removed.
When the armies advanced, however, the
guards were removed. only a small British
| and American garrison being left outside
| the wall A correspondent of the Associat-
ed Press returning from Pekin, found Tung
| Chow stripped like a cornfield after plague
| Of grasshoppers. Everything portable Of
| the smallest value had been taken, goods
from shops, clothing, food and furniture
Parties of soldiers of every nationality
| were roaming about unrestricted, and, pre-
| sumably, were doing much Wanton deStruc-
| ton, in the spirit of deviltry. smashing fur
niture and glassware and trampling books
| and pictures under foot. Most of the Chi
nese were submitting to all this in abject
fear. The few who dared to protest were
| kicked about.
Several bodies lay in the streets, appar-
| emily those of non-combatantS. The inhab-
| tants, without food or clothing. were hud-
died in back yards in a pitiable condition.
| The villages to the southwark are even
| worse despoiled. One week after Pekn
| taken the traveller to Tien Tsin seldom
| out of sight of burning houses. Fires are
started daily. although the shelter will be
much needed if the troops are to hold the
country during the winter.
The soldiers are having ''fns>sport" in
using natives who creep back to their
! houses or attempt to work in the field
| targets. The sight of a farmer lying where
he shot, with a basket of grain or
armful OF other produce near by. is quite
common. The Russians are the chief actors
in this style of conquest, but the French
are remarkably conspicuous. considering
their small numbers. The Indian troops
| and the Japanese participants only
when beyond the ken Of their officers.
Russians Worst Offenders.
From the beginning the conduct of the
Russians has been blot on the campaign
The recital of notorious facts speaks more
fercibly than could any adjectives When
entering Pekin correspondents of the Asso-
ciated Press Cossacks smash down
Chinese women with the butts of their guns
and pound their heads until they were dead
| The Cossacks would pick up children barely
old enough to walk, hold them by the ankles
and beat out their brains on the pavement
Russian officers looked on without protest
| horse at stream under the wall of Tung
Chow the Russians found feeble old ma n
hidden in the mud, except his nose and
dragged him out by the queue shouting
gleeful!y. They impaled him on their bayo-
nets
Gen. Chaffee rema rked That is not war.
1t is brutal murder
American officers at Taku, days after the
fighting finished, saw Russians bayonet
children and throw old men into the river.
clubbing them to death when they tried to
SWIM The Russians killed women who
knelt before them and begged for mercy
Everybody was disposed to be friendly
toward the Russians in the early days of
the fighting at Tien Tsin because of their
| bravery, but such incidents as the forego-
ing have been SO prominent a feature of
| the campaign that no one who is supposed
to report important facts can ignore them
They are so numerous to compel the
conclusion that they are not isolated cpl
sodes but the ordinary practices of Russian
methods of warfare.
The Russians on the walls of Pekin would
apparently shoot every Chinaman within
range outside correspondent of the AS
sociated Press found many newly killed in
the fields outside of the Russian section of
the wall. Some of the bodies were those of
women, and none seemed to be the bodies
of cOmbatants. Coolies We're killed while
trotting along the roads with their loads,
and farmers when trying to gather in their
grain.
DEMAND AMERICANS QUARTERS.
Germans at Tien Tsin Ask Our Men to
| Vacate.
| A dispatch dated Tien Tsin, August 20,
via Taku, August 80. says: The Germans
have formally demanded for themselves all
the buildings and grounds Of the camp of
the United States troops, explaining that