The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-05-06
cHINEsE g0T WORsT OF IT.
Will Stand e. the Injured PartyWhen
Whole Truth = Known.

New York, May 6.-The latest mail
from China, says a Washington special
to the Tribune, has brought to the state
department new proofs Of the terrible
and perhaps irretrievable conditions
which exist under the foreign military
rule in North China involving a situa-
ton not hitherto fully realized, even in
Washington, and utterly unappreciated
in the United States generally The
character of the information which has
now come into the administration pos
session is summarized in the following
extracts from a communication written
by one of the most trusted officials in
the service abroad, and mailed from Pc
kin a month ago:
The question Of raising the indemnity
though one of the most serious for the
Chinese government, is not paramount.
All the people who are likely to know
declare that the Chinese peasant can
stand no greater burden of taxation
than in the past. SO the question re-
solves itself largely to reducing the eX-
pense Of collection, which in China in
wolves radical reforms. Another propo-
sitiOn for meeting the indemnity is to
grant lucrative mining and industrial
concessions to foreigners, but that means
bartering their independence and laying
up endless trouble for the Chinese, who
are quick to recognize the fact
If the whole horror of the murder
and pillage done between Tien Tsin and
Pe5in comes to be understood in the
United States and in Europe the sum of
it 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
held the injured party. Lancers wan
tOnly impalnng little children by the way
side in the streets of Pexin are some of
the least of the we'll authenticated hor-
rors, and to some foreign soldiers dead
Chinese Christian IS just as satisfactory
an evidence of no quarter as dead boxer
they neither know nor care for such
trifling distinctions.
THE allies, even if they could agree,
could not set up an administrative ma
chinery of their own for the empire.
They must restore the power to some
native party and the quicker they do it
mate that one million of their people
have lost their lives by violent deaths
or starvation about Pekin and Tien Tsin
since the allies came Well informed
foreigners long residents here don't re-
gard the estimate as exaggerated
The North China News of March %,
endeavoring to tell why such a situation
as the one alleged can exist, says:
Simply because Chinese civil author
ity has been suppressed. harried. driven
away and nothing substantiated for it.
The country between the sea and Pelzfn
has been devastated and the people have
been killed indiscriminately or driven
out of their homes to become bandits.
We should have thought that one of the
first acts Of the foreign administration
after Pelzin was relieved would have
been to strengthen the Chinese civil au-
thority and make it responsible for the
preservation Of order But what magls-
trate can be expected to remain at his
post and exert himself to put down op-
preston to foreigners when at any mo-
ment a foreign lieutenant with a hand
ful of troops may come and demand a
sum Of money on pain of having his
town or village burned down in case Of
refusal?"