New-York tribune., 1901-05-06
WOULD KEEP CHINA INTACT
MINISTER CONGER SAYS DIsINTEGRA-
TIoN WOULD CAUSE TROUBLE.

D,i,;s,or 7 TT C-onper who has lately returned
10 this country furnishes an article On inc SAii
situation which will appear IN the coming HuiHoei
of "I,eslie's Weekly" Mr.. Conger says In part
Unless matters have changed very materially
since left China. six weeks ago, the powers Will
reach some conclusion IN regard to Cnna very
agree anything, especially when they nave eleven
China is perfectly willing to do anything that the
powers agree upOn-that is. anything within her
ability 10 accomplish. She is only too anxious TO
expedite these and settle down to peaceful
pursuits again OF course. the powers must not
cally upable to raise. II is possible that China will
not be able TO meet quite all the expenses of the
war. but even If there should be slight balance
left on the wrong side IL would pay the powers tar
mands. and allow trade 10 commence again, thSh 1
10 insist the last farthng and delay the renewal
1t is not certain that finally some nation may not
demand territory of China in lieu OF money IN
does make this demand the partition of China Will
follow, and this will inevitably cause much dlssen-
disputes would be long in the settling, and would
lead TO terrible confusion in China p. hefors the
country would be peaceful and there W0uIG h oD De
inces which they attempted to govern-sll this to
the detriment of trade. Russia mas SO lsr lt
gated her demands that there is not now much
danger OF serious difficulty between her ana Japan
Personally l very much in favor OF lhe coli con,
nued existence of China as an empire, goVHrHea M 1
by her own Emperor. 1t will save us ana an the
of tho world lots of trouble II the negIIIS Oh
the empire is maintained The Empress DoWHsf ,trefI
has done much harm. She is not. however, ehIlrey
10 blame for the Boxer uprising AIhoIlS hsl CoNL
seIors and near 10 her were many men OF stronS
anti-foregn feeling. and she listened only 100
willingly to what they said, her own preJuulces
AS Iar as the punishment Of Chinese officials 11i
goes China has already done all that she couIu'
Something out of the ordinary had TO ne de..
manded by the powers, for il takes good Geal OF
| punishment 10 Impress this people, ana thlS was
no ordinary offence. In some cases the oNlclaIs
/ whose punishment demanded were more pow
erful than the government, and then, OF course
the punishment could not be enforced Except IN
| these cases everything done as the powers
demanded. .,-,.. ,,..5
Al home / understand that ] was thought blood-
thirsty hut in China ] the most lenient or all
the ministers except one. We knew the condluohs
better than those who were not there couid pos
siblv know them. Drastic measures We're de-
manded hut ] do not think that we were cruel:
What would seem a severe punishment 10 US at
home would not impress the Chinese at all, TOT the
reason that they dulge in many cruel ana ul-
usual punishments -. s.,star.
The reports of cruelty on the part OF soldlers
have been grossly exaggerated though am sure
that there was plenty of brutality on the part OF
indiyidual soldiers. AS army the allies were
exceedingly well behaved. Nor were the stories OF
1,rrestrirted looting In Peking the soldiers
took what they needed. of course. Just as We
would have seized anything that We needed while
We were Gagged up in the compound had We been
abla "a fasten upon anything that would help us 10
rswithstand the siege. As for the stories OF mis-
sionarv looting. they are undisguisedly false Inc
missionaries did not loot