New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-18
EUROPE IN SUSPENSE.
EVERY CABINET IGNORANT OF WHAT
IS GOING ON IN CHINA.

IS GOING ON IN CHINA.
London June 1S-There is not a Cabinet in
Europe apparently. that knows what has been
taking place in Peking for five days or in
Tien-Tsin for three days. Nor is there any
that knows with what difficulties the small
! and inadequately equipped international column
is contending between those cities. The Ger
man Foreign Office. upon learning the report
I Of the murder of Baron Won Ketteler the Ger
man Minister at Peking, sent a telegraphic
inquiry to ST Petersburg, the Russian Gov
ernment, because of its wires to Manchuria,
being supposedly in a better position than
/ the other governments to obtain direct news.
In reply the German Foreign Office was in
formed that nothing whatever was known on
the subject. communication with Peking was
interrupted.
The report spread world wide from Shanghai
that the legations had been burned and that one
Minister. probably the German, had been mur-
/ dered, has been traced to the Tao-Tai Sheng,
who for few days, as the Empress Dowager's
agent, has been censoring kilograms from
Shanghai The Shanghai correspondent of The
Daily Express says:
Sheng, as head of the telegraph administra-
ton, pretended that the line connecting Shang-
hal with Peking had been down since June 8,
and that the wires to Tien-Tsn were cut on
June To- Nevertheless it is notorious that con-
stant communications have been passing fEom
Shanghai 10 Peking over the Northern and
Western routes. although Sheng has refused
both Ministers and cOnsus the privilege of using
the lines. 1t is known that last Friday Sheng
Tsin. This dispatch said that General Tung
Fuh Siangs troops aided the Boxers in an or
ganized attack on the foreign legations, and that
IN the course or the attack some of the legation
( buildings were reduced to ruins and one foreign
Minister sliced 10 pieces.
Why in the cables it should have been added
that the murdered Minister was Baron Won
| Ketteler is not explained.
According to another telegram from Shanghai,
dated June II, at 7:25 p. m, Sheng has fed.
| fearing that the foreign authorities were about
| to arrest him because of his stoppage of tele-
grams a third cable dispatch asserts that the
reports of the murder of the German Minister
emanating from London are quite unconfrmed,
and discredited at Shanghai.
The German Minister has been captured"
! is the announcement to The Morning Post
from Pekng in a dispatch dated June 13,
p m, via Ten-Tsin. June 10 This is the latest
press message known to have left Peking. 1t
/ continues as follows:
crowd of Boxers occupies Legation Street,
! cutting off communication between the build
/ ings A few Boxers are parading in the city.
/ Their superstition in regard to foreign arms
/ is pitiable.
! for redemption Anarchy reigns at that place.
! The Americans in the interior of the two neigh
! boring provinces have been advised to leave but
/ several have no means Of doing
Unless asrellef force is sent there IS danger OF
massacre of native Christians. large Chinese
! army IS ready to oppose the relief column on the
way here. The Chinese Government cannot de-
4 eide whether 10 adopt the policy of rigidly sup
pressing the Boxers or that of defying the
/ world The decision rests with the Dowager
/ Empress.
During the isolation of Peking and Tien-Tsin
Shanghai is supplying a bewidering bunch of
reports and conjectures. most of them pictu-
rescue and threatening. Here is one:
Miscellaneous armed crowds have been in
hordes around Peking are being constantly
swelled by these arrivals. Well informed Chi
! nese here, who are not unfriendy toward for
! egneTs, declare that there must now be upward
/ of one hundred and twenty thousand men out
/ side the city gates, all of them armed. although
some in a or less crude fashion. The
probability is that there are not more than
/ seventy thousand Chinese troops among them
! all told.
Information from Pekng brought hither by
Incendiary fires Of nightly occurrence and
| scores of OutrageS reported.
Women and children from Tien-Tsin pour
/ ing into Shanghai. The chief danger here is the
fact that the native town behind the European
! settlement is full Of bad characters whose atti-
/ tude IS becoming every day more insolent and
/ menacing.
+ The latest news TO hand is that seven thou
I sand Russians, with twelve machine guns and
I twelve field guns. are marching from Ten-Tsln
/ 10 PeIdng Last week the foreign Ministers
/ warned the Tsung-Li-Yamen that in the event
i.F arlr ne n
any Of the Ministers or members of the staffs OF
( the legations the Powers IN combination would
declare war upon China To this uitimatum the
I Tsung-Ii- YaTnen, usual returned direct
/ reply The answer of the Empress Dowager is,
( no doubt the attack the legations by the
/ Boxers and the troops under General Tung Fab
! Slang.
/ II has transpired that a few days ago the
/ Viceroys Of the southern provinces received
/ orders from Picking TO cooperate with General
/ Tung in the defence Of Peking against threat
! ened invasion by the foreign devils" They
| were instructed 10 send to Peking, without
instant's delay, all the troops they had avail
able within their respective jurisdictions. the