News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1901-09-25


a very bad mess of it. China has gain
ed about all she set out to do, and hui
mainly in England is still being stag
gered at the appalling price the Beers
exact for the English occupation of the
Transvaal.
The Celestials no doubt intended to
initiate the Beers in actual fighting
when they first threw down the gage
to all Christendom. But the men of
China are not men for war, like the
Beers. The South African Dutch are
not only exclusive and Independent,
but they are born and bred shooters, ac.
customed to outdoor life. Western men
who have been long in China say that
1t has been the dream of the Chinese
people to one day defy the world and
have their will about foreigners within
the gates. Seeing that the Beers, a
mere handful, could stand off the army
of powerful kingdom, the yellow men
took heart and bid defiance to the pow
erS. They saw, too, the difficulty Of
transporting armies across the seas,
and in this respect China was as we'll
off as the Dutch in South Africa. Half
the appropriation for the campaign,
half the energy of the troops, were
wasted before Europeans and Ameri-
cans could make a landing on Chinese
soil.
Difficulties didn't prevent the pow
ers landing men and pushing on, but
the experience of the short campaign
of 1900 taught them not to insist upon
too much. The conclusion has been uni
verSal that China can resist the world
If she really sets about it, and maybe
she'll take the notion. So bluff and di-
plomacy have played Chinas game
about as effectually as the Mausers
have served the Beers. The trouble be-
gan with foreigners being in the Chi
nese capital, close to the emperor. Next
came the legation troops in the capital.
This had much to do with the Boxer
crisis. The foreigners brought in troops,
with some to spare, and the Chinese
court got out of Picking. 1t is still out.
The powers are there with the lega-
tons and legation guards, but there is
no Chinese court there and no author
ity to treat with.
All the demands of the powers on
China are made subject to the will of
the empress, who ruled the Boxers.
Every proposal submitted to her is
followed by weeks of waiting and fire.
quent blunt edicts expressing what the
empress will do and what she won't do.
Order has been restored by the powers,
and China is at peace, but the peace
and order are of the kind the Celestials
want, and the bill of the powers for
police work is punched with other IN
paid accounts-in other words, "charg-
ed" up against confessed bankrupt.
The Beers are placing the loss to
England, in one way or another, of
over 100000 men since Kruger's ulti-
matum of 1899. The figures look rea-
sonable in view of the fact that Kitch-
ener is still calling for troops after
hundreds of thousands have been sent
to the Cape. About one man in every
three is used up in getting the army in
lighting trim or seasoned to it's work.
Disease fills more graves than bullets
and also sends more men to the hospi-
tails and to their homes permanently
disabled. Hence it is reasonable to be-
lieve that there are at least 100000
of the men England originally sent to
the Cape to fight who could not an
swer to the roll call today as able
bodied soldiers were the need never so
great. That is big bill for the nation,
a big bill for the individuals and their
families, whatever Chamberlain and
Miner may think of it.
Dom Paul Kruger's message to his
people to fight on is in keeping with
the spirit cf the Beers the world over
as well as on the field of war. Perhaps
in their early campaigns the Beers
made some military mistakes, but they
have in no way acted childish because
the game went against them. The
whole people have acted in one spirit,
as though they had made up their
minds, just as they declared at the
time that they would "trek" no more
England may rule the Transvaal, but
there will be no Beers under her flag
except dead Beers.
Although there is little cultivation
of crops going on in the Boer districts
of South Africa, the people still Craze
their fiocks and herds, always their
principal industry. The British suffer
from the dearth Of cultivation more
than do the Boer armies, for the lack
of crops on the ground must be made
up by transporting food stuffs. OF this
the Beers get their share by capture
BY capture, too, they get arms am
munitlon and clothing None of the
causes which impel people to end g
war has an effect upon the Beers as
yet. They do not lack for material
resources to carry on the war, and theil
WORD for 1t they do not lack the fight
ing spirit. 1t sounded like Boosting
when they first talked of resisting al
the power of England, but they made