The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-02-15
SECRETARY OF STATE NOT
 FEARFUL OF FIGHTING
DOES NOT BELIEVETHERE WILL ARMED CONFLICT
 IN CHINA.

Moving With Customary Prudence
 Feels in View of Experiences During
 the Boxer Rebellion That the Gov
 ernment Would be Justly Censurabie
 if Every Precaution Was Not Taken
 Military Preparations Made With
 This Fact in View---Army Officers
 Concerned.
 Washington. Feb. 14.-Secretary Root, at whose suggestion additional regi- ments of infantry and batteries of ar- tillery were dispatched to the Philip- pines to be near at hand in case of an ant1-foreign outbreak in China, is not apprehensiVe of any armed conflict. He does not think it will be necessary to send troops to China to protect Ameri- can interests. But. moving with his customary prudence, he felt, in view of our experiences during the Boxer re- belllon in China in 1900, that the gov- ernment would be justly censurable if every precaution was not taken, that we ought not to be caught again in state of unpreparedness,
 The very freedom with which the ob- ject of sending troops to the Philip pines has been disclosed has given rise to reports of q much more alarming na- ture than the facts would seem to jus tify Secretary Root to-day directed Charles Denhy, chief clerk e the de- partment of state, and an expert on Chinese affairs, to examine thoroughly all the recent reports from Mr. Rock hill and our consuls in China, and to extract from them every paragraph or sentence having reference to conditions that might lead to trouble. None of the reports that has come to Secre- tary Roots desk, 1t may be said au- thoritatiyely, can be properly describ- ed as alarming" That there is a fer ment in China against foreigners, and particularly Americans, and that it is growing, all of the reports agree This feeling has not, however, yet assumed such proportions as to be considered serious, or menacing in it's aspect There is not one chance in forty of an armed clash with China" one excellent authority puts it.
 The Chinese minister here has not made any representations to Secretary Root regarding our action in sending troops to the Philippines, with the an nouncement that they were to be used in China if the circumstances warrant ed. The present situation Is one of fu- ture concern rather than of present alarm,
 The calm with which the state de- partment views what may come Is not shared by officers in the war depart ment, who are not so well informed An officer of the general staff whC made a special journey of observation to China, where he visited Shanghai Canton, Pekin, and went as far into the country away from the cities as | was practicable, has returned to Wash ington, fully expecting trouble, He remarked to-day:
 China has nearer 150,000 trained troops than 60,O00, and there are a least fifty Japanese officers serving with the army as drillmasters. The al l lies could not repeat the performance, of 1900 and the march to Pekin, unles: with a much larger force, and after hard and trying campaign. Every. where that went about the cities ant in the country found the lower orders of the people ugly and sulky. The! treated all foreigners with scarcel, yelled contempt. The coolie classes, believe, are ready now to massacre ev' cry foreign devir in China, but the, are being held in restraint by the more l intelligent, who counsel delay. seem ea to me that everywhere I went tn, people were in sort of a ferment of discontent and rebellion against for 1 eigners.
 The reason is not far to seek in m. opinion. Any people would resent tn | treatment that foreign whites-Ameri can and European-aecord the native: in China. They seem to show the grea masses of the Chinese no consideration whatever in the personal feelings, Nj Chinese are allowed in the parks in tn foreign quarter of Shanghai. They ma not even listen to the open-air ban concerts, and great placards at tn uark entrances warn the natives t keep out. Foreigners driving out iron Pekin go along in slap-dash style and the natives have to scatter to ge out of the way to keep from being ru1 l over.
 "The missionaries and the other for eigners I found in China who wer treating the natives with any sort o courtesy and decency, and I believ that many of them would be spared il any general uprising"
 nrdor for Ammunition FxpJained.