New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-28
CLEARING Up IN CHINA.

The general problem in China is still compli-
Gated and obscure but the details of it which
most Immediately engage the popular interest
one by one being cleared up. News is COM
ing out Of the silence and the darkness at last,
some Of 1t good, some of it bad. At any
moment it may be supplemented with later
tidings telling of further changes in the situa-
ton. Pending such tidings, and at risk of hav-
Ing the aspect of affairs modified even while we
are discussing il, we may now review the stir
ring incidents of the last fortnight and the state
Of affairs at the moment of writing.
Interest and solicitude were recently centred
upon four companies of foreigners in the Prov
ince of Chilli. These were the Ministers and
their guards at Picking Admiral Seymour and
his troops, who were going to their relief; the
foreign residents and guards at Tien-Tsn, and
the troops that were pressing in to their relief.
The last mentioned company appears to have
accomplished its mission. With Americans and
Englishmen in the lead it forced it's way into
Tien-Tsin on Saturday last, too late to prevent
some bloodshed there, but in time to rescue
most of the foreigners. Then it learned that the
third party, that led by Admiral Seymour, was
desperately beleaguered eight or ten miles away
and it set forth to the rescue Admiral Sey-
mour and his comrades have evidently had
hard time. Whether or not they reached Pelng
they have for a fortnight been fighting for their
lives against overwhelming odds Final tidings
Of their rescue-all that are left of them-or Of
their humiliation may now be momentarily ex-
pected. AS for the fourth party, the Ministers
and their guards there is yet much uncertainty
though Admiral Kempff sent a report yesterday
that they were with the relief party near Tien-
Tsin, which followed a report from Chinese
sources that they had been removed from
Picking under a Chinese escort and were being
conveyed toward Manchuria and the Russian
frontier
After measures Of temporary relief have been
accomplished the Chinese problem" will vet
remain to be settled. There will unouestion-
ably have to be a severe reckoning be-
tween China and the Powers in which the
United States may may not take part 1t is
difficult to believe that the Chinese Government
really means to defy and to fight the whole
| world. If it does. the defiance will doubtless be
accepted. There is still room for conjecture that
| the whole trouble may prove to be q mob uprs-
| ing aided perhaps by a mutiny among the Chi
nese troops, which never too well disciplined
and orderly. 1t will be hoped that such will
prove to be the case, for no man In his senses
could wish to see the empire taken under the
rule Of some European Power or partitioned
among the Powers. Certainly the United States
has no thought of engaging in any such enter
prise. 1t is interesting to observe, by the way
that Ii Hung Chang, by far the best Informed
and most judcious Of Chinese statesmen. recop
niZes the singularity of the United States among
the Powers and testifes that this is the one
Nation that seeks territorial conuuests. and
is therefore the one Nation that China can trust
That is exactly true, at least so far as this Ma
ton is concerned, and the eminent Chinaman's
utterance Of it forms fine contrast to the mad
rawlings Of one Of our own "anti-imperialists'
the other day, who made the amazing profession
of belief that this country's present action in
China sis only another step toward a Napoleonic
system of trying to conquer the world!