Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-07-18
WAR WITH CHINA.
Synopsis of the Latest News From the Fal
East.

East.
There has not been q word of news
during the past few days to give hope
as to the unreliability of any of the
wild stories that have been coming
from China but, on the other hand,
new stories are coming every day with
added horrors.
A story from Shanghai, under date
of last Saturday, announces the MUIR
der of M. de Giers, the Russian minis
ter, in Pekin. 1t is said that the min
ister was seized and thrown into
huge cauldron of boiling water, from
which the body was afterward taken
and fed to the dogs. A St. Petersburg
dispatch says that the car heard the
story with eyes streaming with tears.
Another dispatch from the same city
says that the death of M. de Giers has
not been officially reported there.
A correspondent telegraphing Lon
don paper from Shanghai, gives long
detailed account of the massacre of
the foreigners in Pekin, alleged to have
taken place on July 7. The story is
that upon the elimination of the Box
er outbreak on June 81, all the foreign
ers took refuge in the British and Ger
man legations, where they were soon
after attacked by the Boxers under
Prince Tuan. The foreigners held out
for days and days, being supplied with
food and ammunition by Prince Ching.
More than 1000 Cinnamon were killed
in the assaults on the legations. FL
nally, however, they managed to Sc
cure artillery with which to batter the
buildings down, and although the for
eigners fought desperately to the last,
piling up the grounds about with Chi
nese dead, they were at last over
whelmed by sheer force of numbers
and slaughtered to man.
Although this story is probably very
near the truth, still it has not been
confirmed. John Goodnow, the Amer
lean consul at Shanghai, has all along
been keeping the Washington govern
ment as we'll informed as possible. He
has been avoiding most of the sensa-
tional stories that have been in circu-
lation by the Chinese and used by cor
respondents of the London papers,
and confning himself only to such
information as he has good reason to
believe is absolutely true. He says
there has been no reliable news from
Pekin since June 81.
A puzzling mystery in connection
with the general situation has devel-
oped with reference to long letter of
instructions alleged to have been is
sued from Pekin and published stimuli
taneously last week by the Chinese
ministers in the various European cap
itals and at Washington. The commu-
nication was synopsized in THE EN-
QUIRER of last Saturday. The puz-
zling thing about it is the fact that
not one of the governments is able to
say how it was received by the minis
ters. All the telegraphs of Europe are
under government control, and it is
said France having been puzzled,
communicated with Germany and
found that she was puzzled also. The
French authorities believe that the
identical letter indicates long and
careful preparation of the crisis now on.
In an interview with the London
correspondent of New York news
paper, IN unnamed diplomat who is
said to rank high up in the matter of
standing and experience, is quoted as
saying that in view of the rapidly di-
minishing hope for foreigners in Pekin,
the far eastern situation is rapidly
changing. Where heretofore the
great necessity has been for haste,
now the international powers can be
more deliberate. 1t is their intent to
proceed more slowly. They cannot
afford to strike and lose. Defeat of
early plans will only serve to arouse
the entire Chinese nation to more de-.
termined resistance. Each of the
powers can now take time to make
preparations on large scale. "If the
powers work together" says this d.
plomat, Gas deplorable as is the slaugh-
ter of our ministers, they will not have
died in vain. We will have in fact
what has so: long been an empty
phrase, concerted action. Unless we
lhave this-if there is a hitsh-it is