New-York tribune., 1901-05-06
CHlNA'S EVIL PLIGHT.
FOREIGN TROOPS ARRAIGNED
FOR EMPIRES CONDITION.
SUBSTANCE OF AN OFFICIAL COMMUNE.
CATION NOW IN STATE DE-
PARTMENT'S HANDS
[BY TELEGRAPH TO e rR1BUNE.I

IBY TELEGRAPH To e TRIBUNE.I
Washington May 5-The latest mail from
China has brought to the State Department
new proofs of the terrible and perhaps ire
trievable conditions that exist under the for
eign military rule in North China involving a
situation not hitherto fully realized even in
Washington. and utterly unappreciated in the
United States generally The wisdom of with
drawing troops and encouraging the Chinese
TO rehabilitate their own administrative con-
troll is again vindicated by these reports and
the grave responsibility for China's protracted
prostrarion is nferentialy placed where 1t right
fully belongs. The character of the information
which has now come into the administrations
possession is well summarized in the following
extracts from a communication written by one
OF the most trusted officials in the service
abroad. and mailed from Peking month ago:
The question Of raising the indemnity. though
one or the most serious for the Chinese Gov
ernment>js not paramount. The customs dues
can hardly be increased. as that would be very
much Ike paying the foreign devil" out of his
own pocket. which said devil fully understands.
Every one agrees that if the taxes collected
from the peasantTy really paid into the
imperial treasury, less the lawfully regulated
charges, the revenues would be ample for all
purposes, including the indemnity, but there
IS sood reason to suppose that to a certain ex-
tent the official salaries like the pay of a
care Walter-the tips are reckOned in-and in
any case the money diverted from the imperial
treasury could only be restored effectuaIly by
putting the collection of the domestic revenue
under foreign control; but while that was read
lily accomplished for the custom dues at a few
ports, the only ones allowed 10 be opened, for
another matter
All the people who are likely to know declare
that the peasant can stand no greater burden
oi taxation than IN the past. so the question
solves itself largely to reducing the expense Of
collection. which in China involves radical re-
FORMS Another proposition for meeting the in
demnity is to grant lucrative mining and in
dustrial concessions to foreigners but that
means bartering their independence and laying
up endless trouble for the Chinese who are
quick 70 recognize the fact.
A MILLION CHINESE LIVES LOST.
In the mean time the imperial government ia
playing a waiting game. If the whole horror OF
the murder and pillage done between Tien-Tsin
and Peking comes to be understood in the limited
States and in Europe the sum of fr is So great
as compared TO the number of Christians who
have suffered at the hands of the Chinese that
rightly or wrongly. the Chinese are likely to be
heid the injured party. Lancers wantonIy i'm
paling little children by the wayside in the
streets OF Peking are some of the least Of the
Wen authenticated horrors, and to some foreign
soldiers a dead Chinese Christian is lust as
satisfactory an evidence of no quarter as a dead
BOxer-they neither know nor care for such
trtfing distinctions. Diplomatic officials con
suls missionaries and foreign employees in the
Chlnese service are alike at = loss to see the
issue IN any definite shape but the most rea-
sonable conjecture to-day is that China will
tenpor1ze with a view to keeping the powers
IIuIi HSutlUS among themselves her
Mempered BODY, and 70 gain time for the knowl-
edge OF her mseries TO overshadow her crimes
The allies. even if they could agree. could not
set up an administrative machinery OF their
own Tor the empire. They must restore the
power to some native party. and the quicker
they do it the better for China 1t is irnUossibIe
TO understand the attitude of some of the mis-
sionaries- Talking with several recentlv and
speaking of the killing of every living thine in
a a. certain village because of the murder of a
CHRISTIAN was met with the placid remark
that 1t would prove useful Warning-the kill
ing of women and children
In the old days the Spaniards before they
slaughtered aDOrlS1neS used To give them a
chance TO kiss the cross before they died that
their souls might be speedily in Paradise but
moderns know better and do not try TO save the
ihurutTeu Cnlhese man or woman from a plain
and simply furnished Calvinistic hell
me Chlnese estimate that one million of their
people nave lost their lives by violent deaths or
starvation about PeIing and Tien-Tsfn since
the allies came. Well informed foreigners IOne-
resident here do not regard the estimate as ex-
aggerated
EVILS WROUGHT BY TROOPS.
The murder Of the Rev. Mr. Stonehouse be-
tween Pekng and Tien-Tsin by bandits. the re-
port continues, was the subject of much agita-
tion in foreign circles about the end Of March.
particularly in regard to its bearings on the
mistaken policy of maintaining fifty thousand
foreign troops in the vicinity of the murder
The incident. in the universal opinion was the
result. it is said of the operations Of the allied
troops. which had created state Of absolute
anarchy in Pe-Chi-Li. while the remaining, dis
tricts of China were peaceful and orderly under
Chinese domination, notably so under the South
and Middle VicerOys. The statement is
added that before the Boxer outbreak a year
ago a foreigner could travel alone with per-
feet safety in Pe-Chi-Li. but after the Boxers
had been subdued by foreign troops and the
population been so treated that TO look askance
at foreigner had come to mean speedy death
the murder of a missionary in this so-called
pacifed district possible.
THE North China News" Of March IS. en-
deavoring to tell why such a situation as the
one alleged could exist says:
Simply because Chinese civil authority has
been suppressed, harried. driven away, and
nothing substituted for it, The country between
the sea and Peking has been devastated and ths
people have been killed indiscriminately or
driven out of their homes to become bandits
This is no doubt. inevitable in war; but we are
not supposed 10 be at war with China The
Chinese peopIe even in Chilli are nor All roh
bers bandits and Boxers: and the Chinese Off
cials corrupt and indolent as many OF them
are, are not all in sympathy with the Boxers
even in Chilli, and they do know how TO keep
order in their jurisdictions. unless they get a
hint from their superiOrs that they are 10 wink
at disorder. We should have thought that one
of the first acts or the foreign administration
after Peking relieved would have been 10
strengthen the Chinese civil authority and make
IL responsible for the preservation of order Rut
what magistrate be expected to remain ar
his post and himself to put down oppo-
sition TO foreigners when AT any moment
foreign lieutenant with handful of troops NAV
come to him and demand a sum of money on
pain OF having his town village burned down
IN case of refusal?
FOREIGN CAMPAIGN CONDEMNED.
1t is not weeks but months since we first drew
attention TO the mistake of attacking and killing
off Chinese indiscriminately. whether they were
really Boxers or only peasants. The anarchy
that now exists is the result not OF the ineradic