The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-07-12
CRY OF DESPAIR.
A Message From Sir Robert
Hart Reaches Che Foo.
1t Was ssCIOse to Goodbye. Near
the End.'
HOPELESS SITUATION
Of the Foreigners in the Capital
of China
Is Further Emphasized by Other
Belated Messages.
AN ARTILLERY DUEL
Was in Progress at Tien Tsin
July S
With the Advantage Seemingly
in Favor of the Chinese.
AN ARTILLERY DUEI
Was in Progress at Tien Tsin
July S
With the Advantage Seemingly
in Favor of the Chinese.

New York. July ia dispatch to the
Journal and Advertiser from Che Foo,
July 8, says:
A courier from Sir Robert Hart, in
Pel1in, has just arrived, bringing this
message, dated June %:
'Close to goodbye Near the end"
AN ARTILLERY DUEL.
Copyright, 1900, the Associated Press.)
Che Foo. Sunday. July 8.-An artillery
due is progressing at Tien Tsin. The
Chinese guns are SO masked that the
allies find difficulty in locating them.
ALL HOPELESS.
New York, July PA dispatch to the
Herald from Shanghai says:
A private letter from Pekin, dated
June "a, and received at Tien Tsin June
80. says:
1--WE are in danger of death. Thirty
thousand troops are attacking. Only
three days food is left
mo news comes of troops If no
relief comes, all seems hopeless
'Mallien's store has been burned and
the Hotel de Pekin bombarded. The
Italian, Dutch, American and part of
the British legations have been burned -
This confirms Sir Robert Harris de-
spa1r1ng message of the same date.
Yuan Shih XII has telegraphed Tatoia
| Sheng that he has received a verbal
message from Pekin, dated July 5, to
| the effect that two legations were still
unc2otured and that more than half
| the boxers had dispersed. Refugees
who arrived today from Tien Tsin,
| which they left July 5. regard the posi-
| ton of foreigners at Pekin as hopeless
since June &C.
JAPANESE FORCE OF $4,000.
Yokohama, July 12.-Though no de-
cision has yet been announced it is GER
| tain that Japan will send nearly So 900
troops to China. The press agrees that
the. dispatch of so large a force is a
| duty in the interests of humanity, but
asserts that large measure of re-
sponsibility for the troubles rests upon
Russia and Germany because of their
arbitrary action in China
DISAGREEMENT AMONG ALLIED
FORCES.
Copyright, 1900, the Associated Press. J
Tien Tsin, July 4, via Che Foo, July
6, and Shanghai. July IA homo
geneous army of half the strength of the
allied forces could do better work than
is being done by them. The operations
are dangerously handicapped and the
safety of the city is imperilled by lack
of organization and the want of one
commander to control all the forces.
The representative of the several ma
tionS manage their civil and military
affairs largely without cooperation.
The ranking officer of each nationality
has absolute jurisdiction over the op-
erations of his governments troops.
Questions of policy are discussed at in
ternatiOnal conferences which have not
the power to enforce the wishes of the
majority.
Admiral Seymour's method of com
mandfng is to make requests, which
the other commanders generally fol-
low; but there have been instances of
the ranking officers holding aloof from
operations of which they disapproved.
There is great need of more troops.
The present force of 10000 men is at
TOW MI 10 mil
around the city.
There is also great need of rebuild
ing the railway to Taku and getting ar
tillery equal to the guns with which the
enemy are daily bombarding the allies
positions. The work resulted in sub
stantial gains for the Chinese, as the
allies lost SO or go men and succeeded
in accomplishing nothing.
Yesterday furnished a new i1Iustra-
ton of the weakness of present meth
DDS. A majority of the commanders had
agreed that it was imperative to attack
the native city beyond the foreign set
Elements and to destroy the artillery
therein, which menaced the settlements.
The attack was fixed for four days ago
but was postponed because the Russian
commander considered his aen unfit for
the duty after their recent work. 1t
was again fixed for yesterday, but it
was postponed because credible reports
were in circulation that 10000 regulars
from the northwest had reinforced the
Chinese.
In the meantime the Chinese had re-
moved two big guns on the fort near to
the native city and had planted four in
the open near the east arsenal, two
miles away. These shelled the city for
four hours, sending in more than 100
shells. They got the range of the public
buildings and of the club houses used
as hospitals and dropped shells all
about them. Fortunately most of the
shells were defective and failed to burst
and the others had small radius of ef-
fectiveness.
In the absence of a concerted plan the
Russians sent new companies of Cos
sacks with two field guns, and the Jap
anese a battery of six three Founders
and two companies of infantry, support
ing the English IL Founders from H NJ.
s. Terrible to silence them. The Terri
bles guns failed to get an effective po-
sition and the Russians had one gun
dfsrnounted and four men killed early in
the engagement. The japanese were
confident that they silenced the guns in
the open, but it appeared to the onlook-
ers that these guns fired the last shots
as the japanese were retiring.
The Russians lost heavily and the
Japanese had one killed and II wound
ed The Chinese threw a. few shells in
to the city this morning to show that
they were still alive.
A British officer described the situa-
ton as chaos He said: