The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1900-08-14

edlcts have been discovered mitigating
the people 70 destroy the foreigners.
These edicts were Issued simultaneous.
~ with others IN which the Chinese
government promised to protect the le-
cations.
According 10 Berlin special 10 the
Post. Lord Salisbury in his reply 70
the kaiser advised that Count Won
Waldersee should be appointed com
mandcr- n-ahlef The German foreign
Office Is not disposed to attach undue
Importance to the one condition Insist
cd upon by England. that the assent Of
the other powers concerned should also
be obtained. since all the powers save
France have now given their formal
consent to Won waldersee's appoint
mcnt.
Despite the assertions so confidently
repeated that all the powers have ac-
cepted the appointment. II Is
still believed here that several gov
ernments S.aye given their consent 10
the counts nomination with important
limitations on his freedom OF action.
II Is pointed out in Paris. and by re-
sponsible statesmen like NJ. Mellne. that
under the law Of February. 1874. no
foreigner can hold. even nominally or
Professionally. command Of any body Of
French troops. At present the counts
commission from the powers would
make him rather CHIEF Of a council Of
officers than commander-in-chief No
doubt when the allied army Is actually
engaged In a battle with the Chinese,
the German field marshal Will be in
command. and his tactical dispositions
will be carried out by all ranks and ma
tionalities. but on the larger qus stion
OF strategy and policy the attitude Of
the chiefs Il the various foreign con-
tingents will be largely determined by
instructions from home. 1t is possible,
however. that before Count Won Wal
dersee reaches the Pei Ho a more def
mite understanding between the powers
as to their objects and purposes in
China viii have been reached.
The only member Of the cabinet who
has lately referred publicly to the Chin
ese question Is Lord Londonderry. The
Dostmaster-general in a recent speech
at a political gathering urged that the
powers would seek no indiscriminate
vengeance, but would insist on the
punishment Of the mandarins and other
high personages really responsible for
the outrages committed. instead Of al
lowing themselves 10 be put off by the
execution OF a miscellaneous selection OF
less guilty subordinates. Great Britain.
said the speaker. must do what it
could to preserve order in the Yangtse
Valley, and he maintained that her
majesty's government considered it
was under a special obligation to pro-
tect Shanghai.
Considerable uneasiness continues to
be felt in official circles, though not
much is said about It in the newspa-
pers. as to the action Of Russia in the
Chinese provinces adjacent to her own
frontier. Little is really known about
the state Of affairs in the Amur region.
and II has even been alleged that the
attacks on the Russian settlements
have been merely those OF small rowing
bodies of Tartar bandits. But Russia
is clearly preparing for a campaign on
great scale. Moscow kilograms as
sert that $4,000 troops have already
started on the railway route to the far
East and many more are 20 be embark
ed from Odessa. Some Of the Russian
newspapers are now openly asserting
that the time has come to settle wheth-
er the Slav or Mongol, Christ or Buddha
shall be supreme in Northwestern Asia.
Meanwhile the Russians are already
understood to have decided to take pos
session of New Chwang. the important
railway center and harbor which 1t has
been the determined object of British
diplomacy for two years past to keep
out of Muscovite hands.