Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-01

can Hves in the country's raging CHI
| No. IA Scowl Tha
, BY SMEDLEY BUTLER.
, Major General, United States Marine Corps.
! Copyright, 1929. by North American News
! paper AllianceD
~ ACK in 1900, as young lieuten-
- ant in command Of a company
n of United States Marines, I was
- in China. 1t was during the
bloody and fearsome days OF the
Boxer rebellion.
The Boxers, a powerful organization
of millions of Chinese, were determined
to assassinate all foreigners in China.
In skirmish between a mob Of these
| fanatics and our troops three Of our
men were killed and nine Of us, includ-
/ ing myself, wounded.
This particular battle was fought in
va Chin Ku, part of TientSin, North
ern China. To foreigners the COM
munity Is known now as BoXertown.
! At that time / could see no reason
for being friendly with the Chinese peo-
pie. Every Chinese, as far as we were
| concerned was a Boxer. waiting an OPP
! po-LdEity TO kill foreigner.
At that time, too. ! could not under
stand why the United States made so
much fuss over the comparatively few
Americans in China. In common with
many others, had the hard boiled
idea that If Americans didn't like it in
China or felt unsafe there they should
! get out and come home.
There was no sense, I thought, of
the United States going to the trouble
of sending troops to China TO protect a
| few American lives. If there was dam
ger, 1 felt these Americans should be
made to pack up their belongings and
get out or else remain and suffer the
consequences.
not then old enough to vote.
Last year I was in China again. In
ternal strife there once more endan-
gered American lives and caused the
President of the United States to send
Marines to protect these lives. This
time was the senior officer in COM
mand of some 5000 of our Marines
One afternoon last Fall the elders
and principal merchants of the same
community of va Chin Ku, led by a
Chinese band making weird noises
| termed music and followed by a throng
| OF residents, marched up to the Marine
headquarters in Tientsin.
! I sent my interpreter out to learn
what they wanted. After a bit of con-
verSation he informed me that they had
come to give me a blessing umbrella.
|
/ as he did not believe they had come
TO do any such thing, for no other for
eigner in the history Of China had re-
CeiVed one.
| An Ancient Custom.
This business of presenting blessing
umbrellas is an ancient custom in
| China. The umbrellas are supposed to
be given to great benefactor, but only
with the unanimous consent of the
! population Of town. In the records
Of the consul general at Tientsin and
the legation at Peiping there is no en-
| try OF such an umbrella having been
| given to foreigner before, and only
one had been given to a Chinese in
| Peiping and Tientsin in II years.
I could not understand why these
people would give ME this honor: I
knew I had not been pubic bene-
factor. Besides, I didn't need an UNI
brella nor did 1 particularly want one.
| However, with great formality and
many long winded addresses in Chi
| nese the notableS offered this very
| elaborate umbrella, because, they said,
I had saved va Chin Ku from being in
vaded and looted by hostile army
After the visitors had finished their
| speechmakin. which the interpreter
/ had translated sentence by sentence,
! started on my little speech Of accept
| ance.
In my talk recalled the incident of
| % years before when we had been shot
up, and 1 even pointed to that part OF
my anatomy where one of their bullets
| had found its mark.
| Several of these fine. dignified old
Chinese gentlemen bowed their heads
and put their hands to their faces as l
related the details of that skirmish. I
| thought 1 had surely offended them by
recalling the incident. I asked the in
| terpreter to learn if I had offended
and if SO to express my humble regrets.
After a bit of hurried conversation
he turned to me with grin, said the
visitors were the very Chinese who had
| fired upon us in 1900. and that they
were merely trying to be polite and
conceal their amusement as they re-
called the happening.
This blessing umbrella is of the finest
silk and Is feet high. 1t is really a
| gorgeous and beautiful thing. Small
silk tassels that hang all about have
written on them the names of the elders
of the town. while the main inscription,
in Chinese characters, of course, reads:
ITO General Smedley Butler. United
States Marines. from the Merchants
and Residents of va Chin Ku. You
have saved part of Tientsin."
| On one of the two banners which
accompanied the umbrella is the in
scription. your kindness is always in
the minds of the people"
The inscription on the other banner
is "You love Chinese as well as your
own people"
How He Won the Umbrella.
The story of how won this particu-
| lar gift is rather strange One after
noon. finding time idle on my hands at
| Tientsin headquarters. I drove on I'M
accompanied toward Boxertown. Where
the Standard Oil Co. has an $8,OO0,Ooo
plant.
We had a detail of Marines on duty
at the oil works, as some months pe1ore
the place had been fired. 1t had burned
| three or four DAYS before the Marines
could stem the flames The Marines.
| incidentally, saved S6,000,000 worth OF
property by their heroic work as hre-
men.
At that time the Southern. or Can
| tonese, or Nationalist Army, having
conquered the rich Yangtze Valley, was
on its way north to take over Tientsln.
Peiping and the surrounding territory,
and thus complete its conquest OF the
Northern forces.
AS I drove along the bumpy old dirt
roads saw groups of men, women and
children, all carrying their meager be-
longings on their backs, coming from
Boxertown toward the heart of Tien-
tsin I paid no attention to them.
Reaching Boxertcwn, I found myself In
a very narrow street, with no intersect-
ing thoroughfares its whole length.
Many of the natives, who seemed to
be much agitated, recognized the brigade
flag which few from my car and mo-
toned to me apparently to go back.