The age-herald., 1900-06-16
CITY WELL DEFENDED Gates Heavily Defended With
 Modern Guns. CHINESE TROOPS ARE AFRAID The Guards Around the Legations is All That Saves the Ministers
 from Being Attacked
 by Natives
CHINESE TROOPS ARE AFRAID

London, June 16-This is the situation in China as it appears to the Shanghai cor respondent of the Daily Express cabling last evening:
 "It is really a state of yelled war. The members of the general legations in Pekin are virtually prisoners, and the Chinese troops are only restrained from attack by fear of the legation guards
 Meanwhile the ministers are altogether unable to communicate with the officers making an enforced and isolated malt be- tween Tien Tsn and Pekin. The walls of the capitol guarded by 100000 imperial troops. The gates are heavily defended with modern guns. General Tung, acting under orders from the Empress Dowager, says that more foreign troops shall en- ter the sacred city.
 "On Monday the ministers sent a demand to the rsung-Li Yamen that the gates be opened, declaring that otherwise the for. eign troops would enter forcibly. To this no reply was given. A second message went unanswered, or had not been answer ed when the latest news left Pekin.
 Sir Claude MacDonald's latest message says that the legations are capable of sus- an eISctlNe QeIeuSe uHleSS dlldCh- ed in force.''
 Russia, this correspondent asserts, not withstanding assurances to the contrary, sides with China. Some foreign troops are already reported to be in the environs of Pekin, and the attitude of the Chinese troops is increasingly menacing.
 "The streets of Pekin." continues the cor respondent of the Daily Express, "are re- ported to be seething with anti-foreign mobs, clamoring for the destruction of the legation and the death of the foreign min- isters Even were the Tsung Li- Yamen disposed to restrain the violence of the re- actionaries it is considered highly improb- able that they will be able to hold them in check For the foreign ministers the crisis will arise when the relief column comes in sight of Pekin.
 Tt is still felt here that the foreign force is wholly inadequate to battle with the hordes of Chinese troops massed outside the gates, which now include the imperial troops from Shan-Hai-Kwan.-
 The transmission of messages is risldly refused.
 A dsquieting element in the situation is the fact that although the Russo-Chinese telegraph line from Pekin, via Kiakhta (Eastern 6iberia) is working again, the transmission of messages is rigidly re- fused.
 From Ten Tsin it is reported that the foreign forces in the harbor will attack the Taku forts and if necessary Lombard them
 The international column appears to be still at Lang Flung, engaged in slowly re- pairing the railway, which, according to a dispatch from Tien Tsin to the Daily Mail, dated June IA, cannot be effected for weeks. The force is short of provisions and it is without field transport and must stick to the railway.
 The report that the mixed forces will seize the Taku forts is taken to mean tht foreign commanders expect no aid from the Chinese government in repressfng the Box CTS and are determined to make Taku se- cure as a base from which to operate.