Evening star., 1900-09-21
DROWNED LIKE RATS
Frederick Wright Tells Of Chinese
Massacre at Blagovestchenck.
COSSACKS FORCED THEM ON RATS
They Then Ravaged the Country
With Fire and Sword.
PEACE WITH RUSSIA AT END

NEW YORK, September 21.-Concerning
the massacre of $500 Chinese at Blago-
vestchenck by Russians, the Evening Post
contains an account from G. Frederick
Wright, one Of the faculty Of Oberlfn (Ohio)
College, who was erroneously reported
killed at Pekin. The letter is written from
Stretensk. Siberia, under date OF August u.
Up to July / relations between Russians
and Chinese were cordial Guards which
protected the Chinese Eastern railway
through Manchuria were COssacks and Chi
nese, and there was no intimation OF trou-
BILE until about the middle of June, when
engineers at Telling received telegram
that no more laboTers could be procured on
account of the revolution.
There was considerable feeling against
the railway. Many said it would never be
completed; consequently many Manchu-
rians were reluctant to work.
The work of grading was let out to Chi
nese mddlemen, who hired coolies, whom
they cheated. About 100000 coolies. i'm
ported from Chefoo and Tien Tsin were at
work on the line. All was going well until
about the last of June, when the families
of the engineers at Harbn were forced to
fee for safety. Troops gathered from every
quarter to protect Harbin.
BIagOvestchenck Was Seized.
Blagovestchenck. left defenseless. was
seized. Large numbers were in settlements
of the valley of Nonyi, from the center of
Manchura well up TO the vicinity of Blago-
vestchenck. The Russians were largely de-
pendent on the Chinese for labor and vege-
tables. The Russians seemed to be OBJ
liviOus to danger in their relations with the
Chinese.
All was quickly changed. AS soon as the
Russian troops went down the river on
transports July 1Al the fort at Aygun be-
gan, without warning, to fire upon passing
steamboats,, and on July Is fire was opened
upon Blagovest chenck and some Russian
villages were burned opposite the fort The
actual injury inflicted by the Chinese was
slight. but the terror caused by it was in
describabie, and ii drove the Cossacks into
a frenzy of rage The peaceable Chinese,
to the number of 1000 or 1900, in the city
were expelled IN great haste. and, being
forced upon rafts entirely inadequate, were
most of them drowned in attempting 10
cross the river. The stream was fairly
black with their bodies. Three days after
hundreds Of the corpscs We're counted in
the water.
Mr.. Wright says:
Saw Thirty Villages Burning.
'In our ride through the country to req oh
the city on Thursday, July -. we saw as
many as thirty villages and hamiets Of the
Chinese in flames. One Of them was a city
of 5000 or 10,0~ inhabitants. We estimated
that We saw the dwellings of 10000 peace
able Chinese in flames that awful day. while
parties of COssacks We're securing the fields
to find Chinese. and shooting them down at
sight What became Of the women and
children no one knew: there was appar-
emily no way for them to escape to a place
OF safety. On our way up the river for 500
miles above the city every Chinese hamlet
was charred mass II ruins. The large vii
lase or Motcha was still smoking and we
were told that 4W9 Chinese had been killed
The wholesale destruction, both of property
and of life, was thought to be o military
necessity. / shall never forget the night
spent in one of these villages, d few miles
below Aygun, three or four days after hos
tilities began. Every household was packed
up in carts and removed in the middle of
the night 10 the prairies in the interior The
guards were insufficient and the only way.
as they thought, to protect their own fami-
lies, was to strike terror into the hearts of
all the Chinese. And SO the work of de-
structlon has gone on. Since we left we
hear that Aygun has been taken amid a
great loss of life to the Chinese. Work in
the mines Is paralyzed and the laborers
driven out. Peace between the Russians
and the Chinese has come to an end Years
cannot wipe out the enmity engendered."