The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-12-16
PRETTY GOOD FIGHTERS,
TIE CHINESE ARM
CBY OSCAR KING DAvIs3


Probably most of the army officers
who went to China last summer had
forgotten the declaration of Lord
WoIseIey that the great danger in Eu-
rope lay in the fighting force of the
Chinese. Perhaps they had never heard
of it. Surely it was the belief Of the
average fighting man of the other races
that the men with the long queues and
Tapping, baggy clothes would not and
could not stand long before his own
superior military skill and proves. |
The ease with which half dozen tin
clad little gunbOats took the great Ia
ku forts served those who held this
opinion as cOrrobOratOry evidence. But
after a few days of the fighting about
Tien Tsiu they began to remember the
man who wrote The yellow Peril and
to talk of the task it would be to over
come the Chinese and the danger TO
the world of permitting them TO organ
iZe and drill an army of any considera-
bic size For John Chinaman at Tien
Tsin developed qualities as a fighting
man that aStonished his enemies. First
Of all, he was equipped properly. Next,
he knew how to use his equipment.
Then he attacked, an element thereto
fore unknown in Chinese tactics
1t was in the war with Japan that the
GulIlSSG lEdTIGU IIdL saw QuSL " dS 4lOL
good for much when used as gunpoW-
der. After that exposition Of official
rascality the European drill masters Of
the Chinese armies insisted on having
a hand in the purchase of supplies. The
result was that the Chinese at Tien
Tsin were supplied with plenty of
Krupp guns and were armed with
Mannlicher rifles with apparently linn
itless quantities of smokeless ammuni-
ton of the very best grade. 1t is not
too much to say that not one of the
forces sent against the Chinese was as
well equipped for the offensive as the
enemy. All told, more than 100 guns
of various sizes, ages and makes were
taken by the allies in and around Tien
Tsin. Very many of these were Krupp
3.2-inCh rifles, nearly new. This is an
admirable field gun, better than any
thing any Of the allies had until the
arrival OF light battery F of the Fifth
United States artillery with its six rifles
of the same size. The British. Of course,
had their naval guns, six and twelve
FOUNDERS, from the big cruiser Terri
bic, and some 4 and 4.7-inch rifles from
the gunbOats Algerine and Phoenix.
But these are not field guns.
One day early in July the Chinese
planted new battery to the west of
Tien Tsin- They opened on the settle
mentS with it soon after II o'clock on
a beautiful, clear, sun-lit morning.
dozen or more men were on the tower
Of the German club, one of the tallest
buildings in the British concession, and
several British officers were on the tow
er of Gordon hall, their signal head
quarters. All had good glasses and all
were doing their best to pick up the
new battery. The direction of the shells
and the reports of the guns were their
only guides, for the ammunition Of the
Chinese was of so good a quality that
a the distance there was not the
slightest trace of smoke discernibIe by
the strongest binoculars. It was more
than half an hour before the location
of the battery was aScertained. It hap
pened that one Of the watchers was
looking at the exact spot when one Of
the guns was fired and he saw the
fash. That was enough In the course
Of the next few minutes all four Of the
guns were located and the officers on
Gordon hall were signalling to the
twelve-pOunders where to fire to engage
the battery.
The powder used in the cartridges of
the Mannlicher rifles was entirely
smOkeless. Rapidly of fire apparently
made no difference with it A single
shot from one Of the Krag-Jorgensen
rifles of our soldiers leaves very little
trace. but when the whole line is firing
at will there is a thin gray haze above
the men which it is not so extremely
difficult TO place. 1t was not so with
the modern guns of the Chinese. On
the north bank of the Pei river, just
across from the French concession at
Tien Tsin, there were scores Of huge
long piles Of salt, stored there by the
salt commissioner, for the government
maintains monopoly of that industry.
These piles were covered with thick,
stout mats to shed the rains. The Chi
nese used to crawl under these mats
under cover of the night and ''snipe'
into the settlements all day. 1t was
only occasionally, and then under the
utmost difficulty, that any of them
were caught, because the excellence Of
their ammunition left no clue by which
they could be located.
But Lord Wolseley and the yellow
Peril man were not entirely right.
The Chinese is not q natural fighting
man, as many of his antagonists were.
It takes time and patience and a lot of
hard drilling to make him a good sol
der, or to get something of the art and
science of war hammered into the
heads of his officers. They have made
q beginning toward being a yellow per
il. Perhaps in another fifteen or TWEEN
ty years they might have gone far to-
ward the accomplishment of their dear
est dream-the expulsion of all foreign
erS from their territory. But in 1900
they are far from the mark They had
bought enough modern rifles and guns
to equip a huge army. but there were
hundreds Of them who still cling to the
Cld-taShiOned, higglety-pigElety mess
Of shooting irons that the war with ia
pan should have shown them to be al
most utterly useless. They had old
smoOthbore musl1ets that looked as if
they had been made when we were
lighting England about the impress
ment of our seanaen. There were car