Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-05-09
THE SIEGE IN PEKIN.

i j xA 0xASA
We now request your excellencies
to first take your families and the vari-
| Gus members of your staff and leave
your legations in detachments. You
should select trustworthy officers to
give close and strict protection. and
YOU should temporarily reside In the
tsung- i-yamen pending future ar
ransements for your return home In
4 order to preserve friendly relations In
tact from beginning to end. But at the
! time of leaving the legations there
| must on no account whatever be a sim
! gle armed foreign soldier, in order to
| prevent doubt and fear on the part OF
! the troops and people, leading to un-
! toward incidents.
If your eNcellency is willing to show
| this confidence we beg you to commune
I icate With all the foreign ministers in
! Picking. tomorrow at noon being the
| limit of time, and to let tho original
! messenger deliver your reply, in order
| that we may settle in advance the day
for leaving the legations. This is the
single way of preserving relations that
we have been able to devise in the face
of nnumcrable difficulties. II no reply
is received by the hour fixed, even our
prince Ching and Others.
Sixth moon, 18th day Gully 13.
| 1900.
"A reply has been sent today, de-
/, Ginning on the part of the foreign rep
resentatives the Invitation to proceed
1 to the tsung-li -yamen. and pointing
| out that no attacks have been made by
our troops. who are only defending the
| lives and property of foreigners
against the attacks of Chinese govern
ment troops. The reply concludes with
a statement that IL the Chinese gov
eminent wishes to negotiate they
! should send responsible official with
| g white flag.
| Claude NJ. Macdonald"
This message is thought by everyone
to be rank fraud. 1t is supposed to
| come. not from Prince Ching, but from
| the leader of the Kansu troops, and is
| probably intended to lure some of the
| foreigners outside the legation and
| then TO shoot them.
| 3 p. IN. Twenty Russians and four
| Americans made an attack on a house
TO the west of the Russian legation,
| where there We're about sixty Chinese
snipers On arriving at the wall they
| found there WAS 70 way to get into the
| yard. So each man took a brick and
| at a given signal heaved them all to-
gethcr into the yard. shouting and re-
| Wiling at the Cinnamon. Alarmed by
! this they fled and the men took the
| building without shot being fired on
| either side. AT this time the Chinese
at other points started up a bris! fire,
| lasting about ten minutes.
July l6, { a. M While on a tour of
inspection in the su Wang Flu, In com
pan. with DR.. Morrison and Colonel
| Shiba, Captain b. M. Strouts, r. NJ.
l.. L., was shot and mortally wounded
by a SHIPPER. DIR. Morrison was shot
log
tain strouts died at II a. IN. and was
buried at p m One of tine United
States marines, Private Fisher, was
4 killed the same day. 1t is indeed a
| pitiable plight that we are in now.
Neither the Americans nor the British
have amy leader. Captain Meyers is
| disabled by the spear wound he re-
ceivcd in the sortie of July 3. Captain
Strouts is dead; Captain Halliday, the
only Other able British captain. is
crippled by wound received three
weeks ago. Sir Claude Macdonald,
| though he assumes charge is no man
for the situation, and the French and
Germans deny his authority.
| y. m. The messenger sent yester-
day returned with four others, who
waited for him at the bridge. He
brought letter from Jung Lu to Sir
| Claude Macdonald, and a telegram
| from Washington to Major Conge.
The letter to Sir Claude contained
nothing OF amy Importance. The tele-
gram Mr.. Conger recognized as being
In the state department cipher, but
could not determine it's meaning, as
it had evidently been tempered with I'm
that the full original telegram be sent
July w. The messenger returned
again, bringing telegram from Wu
| Tins fang, the Chinese minister at
Washington, inclosins one from the
|
municate tidings to bearer" To this
the minister sent i'm reply: zone
month in the British legation under
shot and she'll Will he nlassacred un
| less help comes soon" One of Jung
LUIS soldiers in the morning came ana
gave himself UP at the German Legal
| ton and asked for some medicine for
wound in the ear, He said that Jung
l,u had ordered the soldiers to stop
firing, but to hold their positions, and
tnat he WAS very deslrous tnat the
foreigners should be protected Not a
shot has been fired since early morn
ing. This is probably due to a fear
that the foreign troops are near and the
! government wishes to protect itself by
saving they We're unable to control the
Boxers and the IIansu soldiers. Sey-
elal other Chinese soldiers gave them
selves up as prisoners at the different
legations. though With what purpose
no one can say.
July is. AS Jung Lu had expressed
Il Willingness to assist the foreigners Il
messenger was sent to him requesting
that supplies of fresh vegetables, eggs,
meat, etc. might be sent to the Legal
ton for the ladies and children ,Phis
Was promised and watermelons and
peaches have already been sent TO the
Japanese I'm the Su Wang Iru and to
the Americans on the wall. The SOL
diers on the wall go on to each others
barriers and chat in the most friendly
aianner There are great numbers of
Boxers in the city, especially in the
south city, but the troops are no long
er in league with these.
a messenger sent out by the Ja,an-
ese minister ON the S0th ult returned
TO-DAY from Tien Tsin, bringing word
that Il mixed force of $4,000 would start
from there for the relief of peking on,
or about the 10Th inst. The force is TO
consist of $4,000 japanese, 40oe Rus
slams. 1000 British. 1900 Americans,
1900 French and 800 Germans. He re-
ports that he left by the Chi Hua Men
teast gate) on June 80, proceeding TO
Tien Tsin by boat. He arrived at lien
Tsin on July 5, but was unable to en-
ter the city, as it Was surrounded by
Chinese troops. He walked around the
city gates and found force of Chit
nese, under General Chang, posted
north of the railway station, cannon-
aiding a force of japanese holding the
ground south of the station. On july
9 General Chang was defeated and he
(the nessenger) managed to get
through the Japanese line on July IL
and delivered the Japanese minister q
letter to the Japanese consul While
In Tien Tsin he CLEANED the following
news: That General Nieh was dead,