The sun., 1900-12-04
THE NEWS FROM CHINA
Minister Conger Still Declines to Sign
Enjoys Agreement.
is SEEKING TO MODIFY IT.
Uncle Sam Has Notified the Powers
That He Deems the Continuance
of Punitive Expeditions an
Indiscreet Policy.

Washington, Dec. 3.-The text of the
agreement arrived at by the foreign min
listers at Peking has not yet reached the
state department from Minister Conger,
and he is still withholding his signature
to the document Meanwhile it is said
that, following his latest instructions to
confer with the British and German min
listers at Peking, he is making substantial
headway toward the substitution of a
modified agreement on the lines of the
policies laid down in the state depart
ment's various propositions to the pow
ers.
While the United States government
has not seen fit to make any formal pro-
test against the continuance of the puni-
tive expeditions being sent out from Pc
king from time to time, it has managed
TO convey to the powers its belief that
the further prosecution of this policy is
indscreet and will tend to greatly delay
the return of the Chinese authorities to
Peking and the final settlement toward
which all efforts are now directed
1t is believed that these intimations
have been taken in good part by the va
rious foreign offices and that restrain
ing influence soon will be exerted upon
A Tien-tsin dispatch says:
-Four companies of German troops are
reported to be seriously menaced 80 miles
west of Pao-Ting-Fu. Eight companies
of French troops, with three days ra-
tions, have left to go TO their relief.
1T is by the imperative order of the
czar that the Russians are handing over
the Shan Hai-Kuan railroad to the Ger
lhaA nv rn
been signed"
Mission Slaughter in Shnnsi.
A Berlin dispatch says:
"a special dispatch from China to the
Cologne NolksZeitung reports fearful
mission slaughter in the province of Shan
81. The first victims, the dispatch says,
were Catholic bishop and his coadjutors
and four European priests, Franciscans,
Italian and French.
"rhe governor invited them to his
house, pretending to give them better
protection, but when they arrived their
hands were tied. Then the governor
himself poniarded them all. Next the
governor went to the bishops residence
| with number of soldiers and seized six
| Marseilles sisters. He promised them
money and distinguished husbands if
/
unanimously rejected Thereupon the
governor poniarded them and also mum
bcr of Chinese priests, 30 Chinese sis
tiers and 200 orphans from to IL years
of age.
| "Fifteen seminarists who had hidder
themselves in cistern were, the dis
| patch adds. tied to stakes and forced tc
| drink the Flood of the first victims. They
were then killed.
~ Chinese priest and two Christians
who attempted to escape were caught
and put in u small hut, where they were
| burned"
The massacrcs in the province OF
Shansi hogan in June last and seen
to have continued at intervals ever since
Correspondence, dated Tien-tsin, Sept. 3
| via San Francisco. Oct. 3. recountcd il
detail the massacreS, which began early
in June and extended until Aug. 10
when the report closed with the account
of the massacre at YEN -Chou-Fu, where
Mr.. and Mrs. Atwater and their two lit
tie children, Mr.. and Mrs. G. w. Price
and their son, all of the American board
Mr.. and Mrs. Langren of the Swedish
mission, and Miss Eldred. an Englisl
woman, We're butchered. The story o.
these murders directly implicated Yu
Hsicn, then governor of Shansi. As
announced in the Pelting dispatches o
Saturday last, members of Ii Hung
Changs staff say the Chinese emperor
will probably send Yu-Hsien silk cord
which is an intimation that he mus
hang himself.
number of reports have been pub
lishcd of the June massacres in Shans
province, some of the details being to,
horrible for publication. Men, wome1
and children We're butchered, their bodies
mutilated, and in many instances thei
heads We're placed on the gates of til,
villages. At Chow Yang, about 10 mic
from Tai-Yuan-Fu, 33 persons wer,
slain and the following day number o
Roman Catholic priests and 40 nativ,
| Christians were killed