Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-06-20
DARK AND THREATENING.
All the World Eagerly Watching the situs-
tion In China.

All the World Eagerly watching the Situa-
tion In China.
The South African war has taken
secondary place as a leading source
of live hot news during the past ten
days or two weeks, and just now
Pekin, the capitol of the Chinese
empire, is beginning to gil the eye of
the entire world. Just what is the
matter at Pekin nobody seems to
know definitely; but still everybody
sees how there can he developments
that will echo throughout the globe.
The situation was confused up to
last Saturday and it is confused yet.
Most of the information then was in
the shape of hopelessly confused ru-
mors, and except that the rumors have
increased in number and variety, there
is not much change in the situation.
The main general features of the dis
turbance last week we're summed up
in the uprising of the Boxers the CO.
operation of Chinese troops; the fight
of missionaries to points of the great
est security; the beseiging of the va.
rious foreign legations by mobs; the
burning of the summer quarters of the
British legation the marching of ma
rines of various European nations
from Tien-Tsin toward Pekin, and the
more or less doubtful attitude of the
Chinese government.
Examination of the maps will show
that Pekin is situated less than hun
dred miles inland from Tien- -Tsin, on
the Gulf of Pechili, and that the two
cities are connected by rail. Owing to
the disturbance at Pekin, European
marines were landed at Tien- -Tsin, and
the railroad being torn up, the marines
set out to march to Pekin, the princi-
pal seat of disturbance. There have
been rumors of battle between ma
rines and Chinese along the railroad,
and it is stated that the German min
ister to Pekin has been murdered; but
it is also claimed that there has been
no direct news from Pekin for week
and this helps to still further confuse
the wild stories that are in circulation.
What the marines on the way to Pekin
are doing is not known.
Dispatches from Washington say
that the authorities there were at first
of opinion that the naval forces would
be fully capable of looking after Ameri-
can interests in China but later 1t
appears that it has about been decid-
ed that it is necessary to send a force
of soldiers from the Philippines 80 as
to make sure Of being on the safe side.
Great Britain, France and Germany
are hurrying additional vessels to the
Gulf of Pechili from Tien-Tsin, and
Japan also has large number of troops
within easy reach.
One dispatch contains a suggestion
that the powers have about agreed to
ask Russia to take charge and restore
order in the name of the combined
nations, and another suggests that ia
pan be called upon to perform the
task. There is no other suggestion
but that Russia and Japan, or either,
is ready and anxious to act; but there
are suggestions that Russia is not
willing to trust Japan nor Japan Rus.
sia, etc. In fact, while there is lots OF
promiscuous talk about cooperation,
there is also lots of jealousy and strong
indications that in the end it will be D
case of each country acting for itself,
or at least Russia, France and China
on one side, against Great Britain,
United States, Germany and Japan on
the other.