The age-herald., 1900-08-07
WAS NOT UNEXPECTED Part of Chafee'S Force Believed
 to Have Taken Part. CHINESE HEAVILY ENTRENCHEO From the Severe Loss to the Foreign Army the Chinese Forces Must
 Have Suffered a Terri
 ble Loss of Life
CHINESE HEAVILY ENTRENCHED

Washington, Aug 6.-Interest in the Chi nese situation was intensified this morn- ing by the receipt of two dispatches from two naval officers at Che Foo repeating un- official but apparently reliable reports of active and extensive hostilities between the allied forces and the Chinese on the road between Tien Tsn and Pekin. | The dispatches indicate unmistakably that the relief column has started in earn est. and that it is meeting with great op- position.
 Although neither of the naval dispatches mention the presence of American troops in the reported engagement it is generally assumed at the war department that at least a part of General Chaffees small army was on hand and took an active and aggressive part in the affair The dispatchs are as follows:
 "Che Foo. Aug. c. Bureau of Navigation, Washington:
 '"British Fame reports unofficial engage ment at Pietsang Saturday morning, three to one. Allies lost killed and wounded. 1,209; chiefly Russian and Japanese. The | Chinese are retreating." ''Che Foo. August 6. l Bureau Of Navigation Washington: | official report believed reliable about | 160o0- allies heavily engaged with Chinese at Pietsang daylight of the 5th
 "REMEY"
 Location of Pietsang
 According to the information in the pos-- session of the War Department the town of Pietsang Is at the head of tidewater on the. Pei Ho, between eleven and twleve miles by road from Tien Tsin. It is a village of mud houses of considerable size, but not walled. The river at this point Is not navigable by anything larger than good sized steam launch, and 1t is thought that the troops had reached there in small boats and naval launches. The country all along the river between Pekin and Tien Tsin is a low, alluval plain, almost impossible for wheeled vehicles in the wet season, and under a high state of cultivation. It presents no natural de- fensive feature and the War Department knows no strategic reason why the Chinese should have made stand there, rather than at any of the other dozen villages east of the walled town of Tung Chow, where Is stored immense amount of provisions upon which the city of Pekin would have to depend in case of siege. From the fact that the engagement last.
 
 in the department, that either the Chinese must have been heavily entrenched or that there was an immense horde of them to stubbornly contest the advance of 16,000 troops.
 F Chinese Lost Heavily
 It is figured by military experts that a loss of 12OO killed and wounded the part of the allies probably means a loss of from three to six times many by the Chinese. It is possible that blow of this magnitude may break the resistance of the Chinese to the advance of the foreign col- umn, but on the other hand, it is possible that this may be one of large number of places on the road that have been en- trenched with a view to falling back and contesting the foreign advance so as to delay as long as possible the arrival of the foreigners at Pekin.
 Unless the opposition suddenly breaks down, the experts look for a desperate en- gagement when the troops reach the walled city of Tung Chow which is said to be even more favorably located for purposes of defense than was Tien Tsin.