The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1900-08-09
Met OPPOSITION,
Active Hostilities Between Allied
Forces and Chinese Between
Iien-Tsin and Peking.
A BATTLE FOUGHT SUNDAY MORNING.
chinese Troops Driven Back. But the
Foreigners Sustained a Loss of
L2OO Killed and Wounded.
~ IL Presumed Tint mt Lcnst m Part
VI "e"' ChnGee's Small Army
Was On Hand and
ToOk Part

says mat the ministers left PekiDg M
Il ger escort August 3. The rebels bav
$ taken steps TO prevent their ultimat
!. escape, and the anti-foreign Ger
{ oI"hS has gone ahead to intercep
. them.
. Washington, Aug. 7.-Intcrest !,
The Chinese situation was intcnsifc,
: Monday morning by the receipt o
TWO dispatches from naval officers a
e-foo, repeating unofficial, but an
parently reliable, reports of nctiy,
ana extensive hostilities between tb.
allied forces and the Chinese on tho
INC between Tien-Tsin and Pckinp
Inc dispatches indicate unmistakablv
mat the relief column has started in
earnest and that it is meeting with
determined opposition. Althourh
neither OF the naval dispatches mem
tion the presence of American trooDs
III the reported engagements. il is pcn-
cra'ly assumed at the war department
'hat at least part Of Gen. Cha(ree's
small army was on hand and took
m active and aggressive part in tbe
affair.
The dispatches are as follows:
"Che-Foo. Aug. 6.-}ureau Naviga-
ton, Wasbington: British Fame re-
ports, unofficial. engagement at pict-
sang Sunday morning, , to 1920. Al
lied lost, killed and wounded. 200.
chiefly Russians and japanese. Chi
nesc rctreating. TAUSCICv
"Che-Foo, Aug. 6.-Bureau Naviga-
ton. Washington: Official report be-
heved reliable; about 10000 allies
heavily engaged Chinese at Tictsang
daylight of the 9Th. RENfEY."
PtctSang is the first railroad station
about miles north Of Ticn-Tsin on
rni's" 80 D..I-;--o.
TauSsig, who signed the first dis
patch, is in command Of the York.
town. which is at Chc-Foo.
II is said at the war department
that there is no reason to doubt that
an engagement has taken place While
no official information has been re-
rcivcd. il is said that such an engage
ment was not unexpected.
According TO the information in
possession Of the war department the ,
town Of PictSang is at the head of
tidewatcr on the Pei lIo, between IL :
md 12 miles by road beyond Tien-
rsin. II is Il village Of mud huts, OF ,
considerable size. but not walled. =,
The river at this point is not naviga-
'le by anything larger than n good
lied steam launch. and it is thought .,
hat the troops probably reached :,
here in small boats, towed by the
avail launches. The country all along =
he river between Peking and Tien- :,
sin is Il low, alluvial plain. almost "
for wheeled vehicles in the
'et season. and under quite a high
tate of cultivation.
1t presents no natural defensive y,
anturcs, and the war department
nOws no strategic reason why the
hincse should have made n stand
lere rather than at any other of the
ozen villages east Of the walled town -,
Tung Chow, where is stored an inn m
cnse amount of provisions upon h,
hich the city of Peking would have n,
depend in case of siege. -.
From the fact that the engagement 60
sted seven and half hours. il is 80
gued in the department that either bc
e Chinese must have been heavily of
trenched or that there was an i'm g.
pnSp bor1e of thar, 70 CO et,l,1,onwl..
''''' "o,"o " '''''h W 80 s'uooorhly he
ntcst the advance of the 10000 in
troops 1t is figured by ro
Hilary experts that loss of 1900 a.
He'd and wounded on the part of the .o1
les probably means loss of from N,
rec to six times as many by the CO,
inese. 1t is possible that n blow do,
this magnitude may break the re-
tancc of the Chinese to the advance N
the foreign column. but on the
ler hand it is possible that this Az
v be one of large number of 4,
ces on the road that have been
rcnched with view TO falling back
i cOntesting the foreign advance 7
rs TO delay as long as possible the t.o
ival of the foreigners at Peking. ,ho
less the opposition suddenly breaks mn
yn, the military experts look for a he,
P''"'' '"s"S'''e". "hcn the it '
ops reach the walled city of Tung r.
)w, which is said to be even more n 9
orably located for purpose of de- C,o
sc than was Tien-Tsin. W. W.
he position of the United States ,,u
lomatically remains unchanged. ~.
his government will not consent to oo
removal of the ministers and for g.
lers from Pcking until there is ~
, communication by the powers str0
h their ministers. Nor will this
ernment consent to communica-
in plain language alone. but in r.
$ that cipher messages must pass tion
ly between Minister Conger and wer
state department. W
is emphatically stated that un- cred
such messages are exchanged the on I
ted States can not know beyond st
'tion that the messages were not was
,led and both the Unified States bv I
and the ministers mis- ters
him.
ierc seems TO be no doubt about
safety of the ministers at Peking EN
the present, and that they will died