The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-09-12
ALLIES PROVE BARBAROUS.
SOLDIERY COMMIT WANTON
MURDERS.
Indescribable Loot and Rapine Marks
the Route of the Foreign Army
French and Russians the Worst.

TAKU, August 30 (via Shanghai,
September 3.)-'rhe Chinese in the Pei
no vaney are paying dearly for the
folly OF their Government. The re-
! tributiOn they are suffering exceeds the
ordinary penalties of war. Along the
river and the roads travelled by the for
eign troops between Tientsin and Pc
king an orgy of looting and destruc-
ton continues, with mucn useless
slaughter of unoffending inhabitants.
While the International forces were
advancing the commanders, notably
the Japanese American and British,
enforced a foreign decree of protection
for property not neeued for military
purposes. At that time most of the po-
pulation except the lighting men had
fled. But now the people are return
ing to their homes, only to find no
shelter or rice or occupation. In the
oVerCrOwded, famine threatened dis
tricts away from the river, their lives
and small possessions are at the mercy
of the bands of soldiers travelling about
without officers
The conditions prevailing leave little
ground for The favorable comparison of
civilized warfare with Chinese meth
DDS. Robbery, ravishing and murder
are so common that every responsible
person one meets contributes stories
from personal observation. The walled
In the pathway of the international
forces whose people remained and at
tempted to continue business. During
its occupation the Chinese patrolled the
place efficiently, protected the people.
ana prevented footing beyond the
amount inevitable with any army
General Chaftee stationed a guard
around the historic temple outside the
WALL forbidding his troops to enter The
commanders encouraged the inhabit-
ants to resume business, promising pro-
lection to all peaceful persons
When the armies advanced, however.
the guards were removed, only a small
British and American garrison being
LETT outside the wall A correspondent
of the Associated Press returning from
Peking found Tung Chow stripped like
a cornfield after a plague of grass
hoppers. Everything portable, of the
smallest value, had been taken--goods
from shops, clothing, food and furni-
ture. Parties of soldiers of every ma
tionality were roaming about unre-
stricted and presumably were doing
much WantOn destruction, in the spirit
of deviltry smashing furniture and
glassware and trampling books and
pictures under foot Most of the Chi
nese were submitting to all this in alb
ject fear. The few who dared to pro-
test were kicked about. Several bodies
lay in the streets, apparently those of
On-COmDatantS. Inc INHABITANTS,
without food or clothing were budding
in back yards in a pitiable condition
The villages to the southwark are
even worse despoiled. One week after
Picking was taken the traveller to Tien-
tsin was seldom out of sight of burn
ing houses. Fires are started daily, al
though the shelters will be much need
ed If the troops are to hold the country
during the winter.
The soldiers are having fine sport"
in using natives who creep back to
their houses or attempt to work in the
fields as targets. The sight of farmer
lying where he was shot, with a bas-
ket of grain or armful of other produce
near by, is quite common. The Rus
slams are the chief actors in this style
of conquest, but the French are re-
markedly conspicuous, considering
their small numbers. The Indian troops
and the japanese are participants only
when beyond the ken of their officers.
From the beginning the conduct
of the Russians has been a blot on the
campaign. The recital of notorious
facts speaks more forcibly than could
any adjectiVeS. When entering Picking
correspondents of the Associated Press
saw Cossacks smash down Chinese wo-
men with the butts of their guns and
pound their heads until they We're dead.
The Cossacks would pick up children
barely old enough to walk, hold them
by the ankles and beat their brains on
| the pavement. Russian officers looked
on without protest.
While General Chaffee was watering
his horse at stream under the'Wall OF
Tung Chow, the Russians found fee
| BILE old man hidden in the mud, except
his nose, and dragged him out by the
queue, shouting gleefully. They I'M
paled him on their bayonets. General
| Chaffee remarked: THAT is not war; II
| is brutal murder"
American officers at Taku, days after
the fighting was finished, saw Russians
! bayonet children and throw old men
| into the river clubbing them to death
when they tried to swim. The Russians
| killed women who knelt before IneIn
and begged for mercy.
Everybody was disposed to be friend
| w toward the Russians in the early
DAVIS of the fighting at Tientsin because
of their bravery, but such incidents as
tha foregoing have been so prominent
a feature of the campaign that no one
who is supposed to report important
facts can ignore them. They are 81
numerous as to compel the conclusHloitl
that they are not isolated eplsoues' ~
the ordinary practices OF RUSSIAN ii'o
thods of warfare 1,o,,,o,,
Tbe russians on the walls of Peking
u,o,,id annarently shoot every Chlnese
within range outside. correspondent
of the Associated Press found many
onUlv killed in the fields OUTSIDE VI
tbe Russian section of the wall SOM olIlS =
~ tho bodies were those of women anu
-. Wv saan,ad 10 be the bodies OF COM
hotonts Coolies were killed Whi,e
trotting along the roads with their
loads and farmers when trying "