Arizona republican., 1900-07-26
FOREIGN NOTES
 AND COMMENT


 which have been called forth by the
 supposed massacre at Pekin, and which
 comprise a recomm endation to the
 United States government to expel
 every Chinaman from this country,
 there is none that is more wildly eX- | travag gant than the demand which has
 been made upon the president to i'm prison the Chinese minister, Wu. who
 still remains at Washington, and to
 hold him as a species of hostage. | Such a step would not have the | slightest effect in restraining the say
 agery of Minister Wu's countrymen in | his native land. They are as indiffer-
 ent to the sufferings of their own peo- pie as they are to those of foreigners. Minister Wu is too enlightened. too
 much imbued with progressive and en- | frightened ideas of western civilization | for him not to be thoroughly out of touch and sympathy with Prince Yuan and the actual masters of China, who would doubtless be delighted to learn of any punishment that the people of this country might infiict upon him.
 By the laws and ethics of all Chris tian nations, laws that are by no means | modern but that have been in existence | since the ancient times when the rules of heraldry and of chivalry were first 1 instituted, Minister Wu is entitled in quite particular degree to the protec- tion and to the hospitable care of the people of the United States. There is
 but one civilized power that. during the present century, has ever so far become oblivious to its international obliga- tions as to attempt to hold a foreign ambassador as hostage after war had
 been declared against it. The power in question was France during the reign
 of the first Napoleon, who, on war
 breaking out with England in 1903, did not hesitate to immediately place un- der arrest MT. Talbot the British charge d'affaires at Paris; MT. Liston, the British minister plenipotentiary at The Hague, and English and consular officials all over Europe, wherever ne
 could lay hands upon them. They were detained in captivity until the close of the war and it was this fragrant dis regard of the law of nations and of the
 most elementary principles of what IS
 known as jus gentium' that led the allies to eventually consign Napoleon to St. Helena, which, in view of his pc culiar constitution, was little better than living death. By his treatment in imprisoning and detaining as host
 ages the English diplomatic and con sular officials in France, and in all the other continental countries over which his rule extended, he had virtually placed himself beyond the pale of civil ization and had become an interna- tional outlaw.
 The only parallel to this case that I
 can find is the action of Emperor Theo- dore of Abyssinia in detaining as hos tages the British diplomatic agent and the consular officials when he learned that England had resolved to send an
 expedition against his country. But on the approach of the English to Magdala he set the hostages at liberty.
 With regard to the reported massacre of diplomats at Pekin it seems to be | forgotten that in 1920 the Russian en- voy at Teheran and his entire mission,
 comprising some forty officials of vari- GUS grades, were massacred by a mob
 melted thereto by the fanatic clergy.
 The Russian envoy in question was the celebrated author and playright, Crib ajedoff, whose grandson has achieved
  and artistic circles on this side of the 1 Atlantic.
 And it likewise seems to have escaped the memory of most people that in l March, 1866. Baron d'Huart the Bel i gian envoy, sent at the head of a spe- | cial mission by the now reigning King 1 Leopold in order to notify his sister, | Empress Charlotte, and his brother-in- | law of his accession to the throne, was
 assailed by band of guerrillas at a village within an hours distance of the
 Mexican capital, the envoy being shot | through the heart and several of the
 members of his embassy severely
 wounded. The Mexicans have always 1 claimed that this murderous attack on l the Belgian embassy had been organ
 ized and engineered by Marshal Ba-
 zaine, at that time commanding the French forces in Mexico. his object in
 the matter being to prove to the world
 that Maximiian's government was so