The age-herald., 1900-07-16
CHINESE NEWS
 GROWS WORSE Minister Wu Receives an Un-
 favorable Cab|egram ATTACK ON TIE LEGATIONS Chinese General Disobeyed the
 Imperial Orders. PREPARING THE WAY FOR WORSE The Chinese Government is No. ct War With Christendom, But is Con ront- ing Very Formidable Iasu T ec-
 tion-Minister Wu is Sincere
PREPARING THE WAY FOR WORSE

Washington, July 15.-such news as came | to Washington today from China was dis tincty bad. It consisted of a cableSram to Minister Wu from Sheng, the imperial director of posts and telegraphs at Shang- hai according to the Minister, and was in -
 reply to the urgent message he himself had
 sent him asking him to secure some news from the Chinese capital. This cablegram Minister Wu regarded as of sufficient im- portance to carry in person directly to Sec retary Hay, who waiting at his home | for news. The message as translated from 1 the cipher, was follows:
 "Pekin news of July says that General l Tuan Fuah Sang in disobendence to im- | perial orders, was about to use guns. Le- | gations and foreigners made defense. A final attack was about to begin on the 7th of July"
 It is surmised here that MT. Goodnow's news is from Sheng who is certainly In position to the first news from | Pekin. Aside from the gloomy forecast
 given of the end of the terrible struggle of l the legations against the inevitable, the | significant feature of the message is the l coupling of the fate of the imperial govern
 ment with that of the foreign ministers l The Chinese government is not at war | with Christendom, but is confronting for
 midable insurrection There still remains a suspicion that while MT. Wu is undoubted- ly acting with perfect sincerity, Sheng, who is represented to be a clever and adroit
 man, knows more of the adroit happenings
 at Pekin than he is willing to reveal at once.
 Preparing the Way It is feared that they trying to pre- pare the way for the disclosure of terrible | news, hoping that it will come out gradual | ly, the blow will not fall with such severi- 1 ty and not perhaps with such disastrous 1 results to his own people might be the l case if the whole story were imnarted to l the world at once This news, it may be | noted, comes entirely from Chinese sources. l It is now twenty-one days since word has l come directly from any of the unfortunates 1 besieged in the legations in Pekin. The last message from there was from Sir Robert
 Hart, the Englishman in charge of the
 Chinese customs service and was of un- doubted authenticity.
 It represented the situation of the lega- | toners desperate and implored help. Tha 1 last word from Minister Conger came to the state department from Pekin under l date of June 12. At that time he asked that l Seymours international relief column,
 which was even then doomed to fail, should l signal it's approach when near Pekin. That
 was just one month and three days ago, ] and it would be an unprecedented de- l fense for such an inadequate and ill-ftted l and provisioned force as was at the com<
 mand of the foreign ministers to hold out for that legnth of time.
 Taken Ansrver MT Wu's cablegram from Sheng, above given, should be taken answer to
 the cipher message he forwarded at Sec
 retary Hays request to China, in the ef- | fort to get it through to Minister Conger. l That message went to Yonan Shin Kai, | the governor ofthe privince of Shan Tung. l That official has replied informally that
 he has no news himself, but 1t is assumed l that he will take prompt steps to forward i the cipher message. His status at this l critical juncture is unfortunately not be- 1 yond suspcion though MT. Wu has full | confidence in him.
 | Secretary Long had two cablegrams to- | day from China, but he was inclined to set | negative value upon them because they | made no mention of the massacre of the legationers in Pekin. He reasoned that Admiral Remey was in good position to
 get as early news as any one of such an event.
 The AdmiraPs message was from Chee
 Foo of this date, though he was supposed
 to be himself at Taku, 1t is assumed that it was sent from that place yesterday. The Admiral stated that he had ordered the Buffalo to Taku She was coming out to
 the Orient by way of Suez, and was to re- port for orders at Singapore, where she was directed to proceed to Manila or North China She is carrying out cargo of coal | and a number of sailors to recruit the American fleet.
 The second dispatch came from Captain Bowman of the gunboat Castine, which is stationed at Shanghai, and was dated to- day It was as follows:
 Shanghai, July 15-To Secretary Navy. Washington. Rogers sends word Oregon ! passed Che Foo 18th, Nashville conveying. (Signed.) BOWMAN. It Is supposed at the Navy Department that Captain Rogers of the Nashville sig
 nailed this information from his ship as he passed Che Fee.