The age-herald., 1901-04-19

I HIS IS Eoou liuieb NHSa tiS PS'te--f@ are trying to reach some settlement of the crisis in China and when the recent crimes against foreigners are fresh in our memories. to remind ourselves of the outrages which China has suffered at our own hands She has offended deeply. but fairness win acknowledge that she has had much and great provocation. What ever may be done, the west is not in a position to pursue policy of revenge, for some of our own acts have been among the chief indictments to the recent outbreak. wish to tell of some of them here. was in China when all that shall mention occurred, and I know something of the impression which they made on the Chinese people. Some of them witnessed with my own eyes.
 Sixteen years ago there was perpetrated within ten miles of Foo Chou, where was then living. one of the crimes of the century. The French were engaged in the conquest of Tohquin,. country which had long been a tributary of China. The Chinese government, though opposed 10 the French proceedings, took no active measures to check them. However just It's claim, it did not feel strong enough to fight. A good many Chinese, however, went over the border from the provinces of Kwang Tung and Kwang Hsi to help the Tonquinese, and for this the French demanded an indemnity of $16,0Oo,OO0 The Chinese government denied responsibility and refused to pay.
 The French then began to threaten, but without success. Two warships entered the Min river in July and anchored op- posite the arsenal, ten miles below Foo Chow. and twenty miles from the rivers mouth. Others followed at intervals till there was a large fleet present. There were two large forts at the mouth of the river, and two others ten miles farther up, but they never interfered with the freedom of movement of the French. It was not thought that, entering the river in time of peace, they would do what they afterward did, The Chinese. how ever, made what preparations they could for defense in case of treachery. They collected fleet of eleven small cruisers and gunboats and a large number of an tiquated and useless war junks.
 On Saturday morning the 23d of Au- gust, the largest of the French ships steamed out of the river, but returned in a few hours with another still larger. They passed in without opposition, but no sooner were they safely above the forts and with the rest of the fleet than they opened fire. In less than half an hour ten of the Chinese gunboats and j,,,, over three thousand of their sailors kill ed For days one could hardly cross the river between it's mouth and the scene of the outrage without seeing some of these victims of French treachery and brutali- ty. No declaration of war preceded this attack. The French ships entered the river while the two countries were still at peace, and the whole outrage was as treacherous as 1t was cruel Up at the city the foreigners were protected by British and American gunboats. The peo- pie had provocation- enough to rise and attack us. If they had done so, and some of us had been murdered, the Chinese would have been denounced in the usual fashion as savages, and the three thousand of their countrymen who were killed would never have been thought of.
 I remember well the anxiety of those trying days. There were no foreigners, except the French, who did not acknowl- edge the infamy of the whole proceed ing Foreigners of other nationalities were so ashamed of 1t, and so fearful of the consequences, that they placed on their gate-posts notices to show the peo- pie that they were not French. The crime is remembered by the Chinese of the Fo- kien province to this day It is remem- bered by the Chinese everywhere. The name of France is execrated wherever in the Empire it is heard and all foreign enought to distinguish between one coun- try and another. The brutal treachery of one blackened the reputation of all.
 The next outrage occurred at Shanghai, in July of 1S9S and was so sudden that though I was in the city only fewdays before, I did not hear word as to the possibility of it. Just outside the French settlement there was a large Ningpo rest-house, at which the bodies of Ming DO people who died at Shanghai were kept till they could be taken back to their native city To the Chinese the building had all the sacredness which cemetery has In this country. The French consul wanted to buy it to enlarge the settle ment, and claimed that by an old agree ment he had a right to do so. The trus- tees of the rest-house denied there was such a contract, and refused to sell. The consul, after fruitless attempts to induce them to part with the building, proceed ed suddenly to tear down the wall which surrounded it. A great crowd collected and drove off his workmen. But he was determined to carry out his plans at all hazards, and from French cruiser an- chored In the river. he had landed force of sailors and marines who fired upon the people and shot twenty of them dead on the street. Of what crime were these sufferers guilty? Of nothing but de- lending against French spoliation the temporary resting place of their dead.
 From that day to this no reparation or apology has ever been made by the French government for that cruel out rage. The death of a single foreigner costs China dearly. A couple of years ago the murder of two by mob cost her a great harbor and the control of 8 pro- vince; but the slaughter of twenty Chin csc, not by a furious mob. but by order of an official of the French government. was not deemed of sufficient importance to require even verbal apology. For a lesser crime on the part of Chinese the