Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-15
FOREIGNERS IN CHINA
THEY LIVE ALL THE TINE IN SOME
TREPIDATION.
A Naval Officer Tells Of His Expert
ences While Serving ON
That station.

A naval officer who has passed some time
on the China station expressed to a Star
reporter today his belief that the foreign
ers in China outside of Pekin were prob
ably good deal more alarmed at the sit
uation there than the conditions, serious as
they are, would properly warrant.
The Wheelbarrow Riots.
THE foreign residents in China live all
the time in a certain state of trepidauon.
he said, even when there is no general up
rising. In Shanghai. for Instance. when the
Monocacy was there three years ago. there
reign of terror for awhile due to
what was called the wheelbarrow riots
The Chinese barrow men. who ran wheel
barrowS for passenger traffic. each barrow
carrying perhaps six passengers reyolted
against decision of the municipal council
raising the yearly license tax from about
forty cents in our money to sixty cents.
The wheelbarrow men numbered about ten
thousand. and Were formidable chiefly for
their numbers. They We're unarmed except
with long ba mbno poles with which they
struck, not at the heads, but at the legs.
of those who opposed them Their mode Of
indicating their resentment at tbs in
creased tax was to attack the houses that
have glass windows. breaking the ranes,
as mob I'm white community might
stone the houses of wel-to-do persons who
We're supposed to be out of sympathy with
their grievances. The third house in the
quarter in which the barrow men began
their demonstratiun-the English conces-
sion-was the British Club. the social CEN
ter for the English and Americans In
Shanghai. When the club house was thus
assailed several of the members. armed
with revolvers. sailed out to drive them
away. They fired into the crowd and killed
several. and in the fight that followed a
few of the foreigners were killed and
wounded. The news Of this ARRAY soon
spread everywhere. and foreigners through
out the empire had notion that their
time had Shanghai itself was
stricken with terror. and the foreign
colony were very anxious that the Mon
ocacy should land lot OF men by way of
producing a moral effect upon the Chinese
and cowing them with a show OF force,
even if il We're not necessary to fire a gun.
The Protest at Shanghai.
THE recent dispa tches indicate that the
American consul at Shanghai has protest.
ed, in the name of his government against
the landing of a British armed force. L
doubt whether anything of that sort has
been done, further, at any rate, than a
mere formal expression Of disapproval to
save appearances and emphasize the
American desire to avoid hostilitieS. AS a
matter of fact probably all the foreign
colony there would welcome the landing of
a sufficient force by any or all of the
powers to convince the Chinese that there
must be no trifling. with danger to foreign
lives or property
THE navy does not seem to be playing
luucH u d pdTt III lilt campaign Ict Nllt
rescue of the ENJOYS, except the contin-
gent of marines, it was suggested.
Navy Cannot De Much.
NO was the answer. The navy proper
could not do 4 great deal where the pres
ent campaign is going on. The Pei-ho river
is not ravigable, even for ships of ten feet
draft, above Tien Tsin. Anything 1t does
above that point must be confined to the
work of launches carrying dispatches, and
for observation work. The rest must be
land campaigning. This would have TO be
the case anyway If the troubles were to
continue very long. for the climate in that
part of China becomes extremely cold after
the early fall. the thermometer at Tien
Tsin and Pekin often falling low ~
degrees below zero. That would make
naval operations imprac ticable after frost.
big ShipS.''