New-York tribune., 1900-07-08

inexcusab bile and barbarous piece of vandalism, |
WORTHY Of universal execration. Bullets of an
expanding character, although prohibited by
the laws governing war among civilized nations
are freely employed in where the foe is of |
dusky hue; and while the English have re-
frai~~d from using Dumdum bullets in South
Al a. owing 20 the fact that the enemies by
whom they were confronted were white like
themselves there is no doubt whatever that
they will use them in China, just as they dld
throughout the Trah campaign and through
out all the Indian frontier troubles Indeed the
indian troops their way to China are
equipped with no other ammunition than these
Dumdum bullets.
The circumstance that England dispatches
Indian instead of white regiments to China indi-
Gates that the latter is regarded as being be
yond the pale" as far the obligations of the
rules of war are concerned. Thus our jus gen
tum condemns the use by Christian nations OF
harbarians in their wars. and when Lord Bea-
consfed brought a large contingent OF lhdiah
troops to Malta in 1878, at moment when Eng
land seemed to be on the brink of an armed con-
/ hict with Russia, a chorus Of denunciaton arose
throughout Europe, in which even large bodies
of English people joined it being pointed out
that France had forfeited much of the sym
pathy which she would have otherwise enjoyed
in 1870 in pitting against the German invaders
several regiments of Turcos a force made up of
/ semi-savage AIgerians, Kabyles and negroes.
England would gladly have availed herself OF
her magnificent Indian army in the South
African campaign had she not been unwilling
to offend the doctrines of civilized warfare, and
| the only use to which she has put Indians dur
ing the struggle with the Boer republics has
been as litter carriers and stretcher bearers in
connection with the ambulance department.
ORIENTAL sAvAGERY IN WARFARE.
The Chinese however. are not Christians, and
/ thercf fore Indian troops can be used without any
objection for the march on Pekng. The en-
ployment Of Oriental troops adds to the horrors
of warfare since all the latent savagery of their
nature is brought to the surface, and in con
hicts where they are employed few prisoners
are taken and there is little call for the sur
geons to attend to the enemys wounded. 1t
has been proved, in spite Of all denials. that
during the last SOudan campaign there was
much shooting and bayoneting of wounded Der
Wishes the killing being done by the black
Soudanose battalion of the Egyptian army,
while appeals for quarter and offers of surren-
der We're rejected, the ground that a Mahdst
was less troublesome when dead than alive. If
this spirit of the black troops sometimes com
municated itself to their white comrades ii is
not surprising, for the white well as the black
soldiers Of Lord Kitchener were aware of the
horrible fate that awaited them in the event of
their being captured, besides realizing the
fact that wounded Dervish was at all times
ready to his knife, upon the very sur
geon who tending his wounds putting
his water gourd the mans lips. In the war
which France carried on for so many years
against the semi-independent tribes Of South
ern China who under the name Of the Black
Flags infested Tonquin every French soldier
who fell into the hands of the enemy was put to
a most horrible death; and often when arriving
before some Black Flag stronghold the French
troops have been maddened with rage by the
sight of the bodies of their comrades spitted to
the walls of the place by means Of huge hooks
and sharp knifeke projections. SpectacIes
such these not calculated to rend er men
disposed to observe the civilized rules Of war
fare, and it is not astonishing under the circum-
stances that the struggle should have been car
on the other which does not precisely consti-
tute pleasant Christian reading
In the dispatches from Shanghai Indignation
is expire ssed by some of the foreign officers at
Tien-Tsin at the brutality and barbarism of
which the Russian troops are asserted To have
| been guilty But it must not be forgotten that
in the first place, the Russian troops, especially
I those stationed the eastern part Of the Cars
domuous more Oriental than European
being largely recruited from Caucasian Cen
. tral Asian and Siberian tribes. while their con
slant intercourse with the Chinese along the