The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-29
ASSASSINATION OF AMBASSADORS.
Historical Instances when ENJOYS
Have Been AsSassinated

Historical Instances When ENJOYS
Have Been AsSassinated.
The excitement of the past month that
has agitated this country and Europe con-
corning the foreign ministers and attaches
at Pekin recalls the fact that from the
most ancient times the person of an am
| bassador or minister has been held invlo-
lable-the privilege being extended to all
the personnel of his legation; so that when
friendly relations are severed between his
government and the one to which he is
accredited, he is given passports 10 in
sure his safety until he shall have passed
from the limits of the country.
Even to insult an ambassador has al
ways been regarded as most serious in
| ternational offense, Alexander the Great
destroying the city of Troy on that &C
count
SO strong, indeed, is the protection ac-
corded TO an envoy at all times, that there
are but few instances of the actual COM
plicity of government being traced to
| outrages upon his security.
Chief among such, however, was the
murder of DR.. Donislaus, the British min
ister to Holland, in 1913; that of the
French ENJOYS to Austria in 1799 and in
q
bull in 1871 and 1875 respectively.
The assassination of DR.. Donislaus was
due principally to his connection with the
trial of King Charles. as one OF the par
llamentary counsel. A number of English
royalists had sought refuge at the Hague,
and on the day after the doctors arrival
succeeded in dealing him fatal blow. In
this case the thinly yelled sympathy of
the reigning stakeholder protected the muir
/ dc
the crime was regarded by other princes
as even greater than the execution OF
King Charles.
The assassination of~the French ENJOYS
at Bastadt in 1893, was of a particularly
treacherous character. War had been de-
clared between France and Austria. but
the three French plenlpotentiares re-
mained at their posts relying upon the
protection of their office. On the night of
April 18th. they were suddenly ordered
10 leave Bastadt, and had gone but a
short distance when they were ambushed
by a regiment of Austrian hussars. NM.
BONNER and Robergeot were Instantly
killed, but the third. Jean DERRY though
wounded, succeeded in making his escape
back TO the city.
Perhaps the nearest parallel to the pres
emit tragedy at Pekin was that of the
massacre of Sir William Macnaghten and
British envoy and two officers of his
| household having been lured. unarmed to
the palace, were there ruthlessy butcher
ed by the Ameer's SON The story of the
subsequent retI eat of the 1850 British
troops of whom 600 were Europeans, and
1900 camp followers is one of the most
terrible in history. Among the snow-cov-
cred passes they were encompassed on all
sides and attacked at every step by fa-
natical hordes of Afgans. OF that army
only one wretched individual DIR. Bry-
done, crawled into Jalalabad TO tell Of the
horror of that march.
Again on September 3D. 1873 Kabul was
the scene of the assassination of another
British envoy Sir Lewis Cavagnari after
holding out for several days in the resi-
dency against the Ameers revolted troops
was compelled, by the firing of the build
| ings, to sally forth and perish with his
companions. 1t was TO avenge this ont
rage that Lord Roberts made his famous
march to Kabul and Kandahar
The last serious attack upon the life
OF an envoy was that of a japanese ia
matte upon Ii Hung Chang at the close
of the Japan-Chinese war.
The manner in which the Japanese gov
eminent swiftly visited punishment upon
the perpetrator, end the ample satisfac-
ton offered to the Chinese minister, in q
| large measure emphasized the claim of
| the japanese to be considered one of the
| civilized Powers. Michael Clifford White