The Wilson times. [volume] (Wilson, N.C.) 1896-19??, 1911-09-12
and
AGITATION
CAUSE CHINESE FURY AGAINST
FOREIGNERS -GUNBOATS CAN'T
REACH SCENE
AMERICANS THREATENED

Shanghai, Sept. 1.-THE Govern
ment has declared martial law in the
western provinces. Looters will be
| shot on sight. The military are in
sufficient to preserve order. Reports
are meagre from the scene of disor
| der. Missionaries are believed to be
safe.
Peking, Sept. 11.-For three days
no messages have been received from
the hundred foreigners gathered al
Ching Tu, capital of Sze-Chuen pro
vino, for safety from the mobs which
have been running riot in the sur
The Chinese viceroy ordered the for
eigners to leave the city and it is
believed that they are now making
their way toward the Yangtse Kiang
about three hundred miles away, by
cart or river, through a country
where anti-foreign placards have been
posted for many weeks.
1t is understood the fugitiy YES are
under the escort of Chinese troops,
but it is considered questionable if
these troops would oppose their own
people should an attack be made up
on the foreigners.
There are British gunboats on the
Yang-Tse above the gorges which ex-
tend from Ichang to Chung King The
American ships were ordered up riv
er but were unable to proceed above
Ichang, many hundred miles from
Ching Tu.
The Americans among the refugees
number thirty. With the exception oi
a representative of an American to-
bacco company, all are Methoiisc or
Baptist missionaries Placards when
rave been posted in many places stare
that foreign bankers have been en-
trenching themselves on the power
ty,stricken Chinese.
papers in Peking give unqualified
support to the agitation in the pro-
vinces and petitions have been pre-
sented to the throne asking that the
railway program be rescinded and
that the provinces be permitted to
construct the lines which have been
projected by the government with
the aid of foreign capital.
Flood and famine in the Yang Use
Kiang valley have claimed at least
five million souls within the decade,
according to conservative computa-
tions of missionary societies and 9th
er authorities who have received au
thentic reports from the death ridden
districts.
In the famine of 1867 the most aw-
full camp Of which history has any
record was established outside the
walls of the ancient city of Using
Kiang Flu, situated on the grand can
al, about 100 miles north of the
Yang Tse River. There 100000 men
women and children we're herded in
to huts made Of mud and reeds De
spite the efforts made by the Chin
ese government, by devoted mission
aries and by well disposed foreign
ers, thousands died every day and the
deaths ir that section of the country
in the nine months from October,
1906 to July, 1907, must have run to
three-quarters of a million.
A very large contingent Of Chi
nese and influential foreign residents
believe that the greatest responsible
ity confronting the Chinese govern
ment yesterday is the solving of an
engineering problem that will save
the lives of the one hundred and fifty
millions who inhabit the Yang Use
Valley and make possible for continu-
ed human occupation one of the rich
est territories in the world.
ihe constantly recurring floods are
due partly to a denudation of c1acti-
cally all tree life as deforestation has
been going on for hundreds Of years
Another cause is the peculiac eon