Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-15
DIPLOMATS IN CHINA
FEAR BOXER SPECTER
Hesitant About Move to Marking From
Their at Present Protected
Quarters.

! follow were she to give the fatal order
It was known that she encouraged the
Boxers, lent them troops, furnished
them with ammunition, food and
money. But she kept up the face-gain-
Ing device which was later to save heI
from being deposed by the powers: that
of being helpless in the grip of the
/ superior force of the Harmonious Fists
Unusual Orders Given.
Once she haughtily commanded the
Boxers TO cease firing, because she wish
ed to so on a picnic on the Imperial
Lake. The sound of gunfire would have
marred a sylvan scene. On another
| occasion, when she heard that in Tient-
| sin-which was having its siege, too
! the Taku Forts had fallen to the for
eigners, she promptly caused a great
parcel of food and melons to be put
| over the imperial palace we'll AUDITING
| the Japanese legation. The food was
accompanied by a bland message from
her to the legates, trusting they were
| In good health.
Their health was not good. Food
was running very short, thanks TO the
| enormous congregation of Chinese
| Christian converts who must be fed.
Since the legations were completely
| cut off from the world, they tried des-
parately to get messengers through the
| enemy lines. 1t was rumored that there
was a reScuing army coming up from
Tientsin under Admiral Seymour. Some
one must reach the admiral and inn
| plore him to hurry-lest there be no
more legations to rescue.
Two Chinese converts volunteered TO
! try to slip through the Boxer lines.
They were caught. The Boxers buried
| them, just out of gun range but in
| full view Of the defenders, in a field
south of the city wall. The burial was
of their bodies, to their neckS. The
| day, as those heads blackened and
rolled piteously in the sun, attacked by
countless flies. At night, during lulls
| in the firing, they could hear. the dis
NAL groans of the wretched pair. AT
last the groans ceased.
The siege went on, week after week,
The defenders became more and more
highly keyed. They began firing at
shadows, recklessly wasting their Scanty
supply of ammunition. The enemy soon
learned this and began to bait them.
At night torches were cautiously pushed
around the walls of Chinese huts where
the Boxers were masSed. Were the
torches signal for the dreaded mass
attack, the defenders asked themselves
With their nerves screaming, they sent
whole Volleys chunktng into the mud
brick walls of these huts. During the
day red Boxer caps were elevated on
poles, to be thoroughly busted by the
bullets of the legati0naries.
No Guard Relief System.
With the exception of the orderly
japanese, there was no system of guard
of Of "a a Vaf re
were kept there 40 and so hours before
they we're remembered and their places
taken by others. Time and time again
they drifted of into helpless sleep.
Only that same Chinese obtuseness
which had saved the defenders at the
time Of the abandonment Of the Italian
legation STAYED of an inevitable rush
by the Boxers.
In contrast with these, other men
could be seen punctiliously dressing for
dinner and idling away an evening in
the shelter of the British legation-as
calmly as though they were not threat
ened by death in its most malignant
form. Each legation had its quota OF
any stern sense of conscience; they we're
individuals who preferred to keep their
skins whole and to let the other man
do their fighting for them. And-so
chaotic was the management Of the de-
fense-they we're able to shirk in this
egregious manner.
In their evening dress, therefore,
they dined punctiliously on mule and
pony flesh. Once daring Boxer slipped
into the very midst of the legations and
started a brisk panic among the re-
naming unslaughtered animals. The
herd Of $50 Kirghis ponies and mules
screamed and dashed madly back and
forth through the night. They tram
pied horribly over the tightly packed
throngs of helpless Chinese converts,
women and children.
The siege was definitely under way
before Hsu Tung, certain high Man
ehu court official dwelling in the Lega-
ton Quarter, saw fit to leave. He had
openly boaSted that he would line the
sides of his sedan chair with the tanned
hides Of the foreign men and take such
OF the foreign women as pleased him
for his seraglio A system Of passes had
been devised to check the too easy exit
Of possible spies. Hsu Tung managed to
obtain his pass from hustered French
legation.
Calmly he appeared at the bsrricsdes
and waved the bit of Official stamped
paper before the noses of the angry,
baffled men on guard. His sang froid
did not desert him until he was well
outside the line of sandbags. Then he
was seen to pick up his long robes and
scuttle madly into the shelter OF de-
HOneycomb of Spies.
In spite of their system of passes the
legations were honeycombed with spies
In the guise of Chinese converts Why
these spies, aware Of the appalling
weakness Of the defense, did not per-
suade the Boxers to attack is one Of the
many insoluble mysteries of the siege
It was not from any fear on the part
Of the attackers; times without number
the Boxers showed themselves brave to
the point of foolhardiness.
In the legation buildings the ENJOYS
themselves spent the greater portion Of
their time writing dispatches to the
Chinese government. These screeds ran
a wide gamut from the beliicose to the
sheerly craven. 1t was as fruitless a
task as ever men set for themselves
but the habits of diplomacy were strong
Not single dispatch was ever acknoWI-
edged by the Chinese government.
The one resoluts lesate, Won Kettler,
who might haze brought some order out
Of the binding ehsos had gone to meet
his ancestors. Orders were issued in
conflicting tongues Italian, Russian,
English, German. They were given,
and 10 minutes later countermanded--
until the bewildered and weary men at
the barbados became frantic.
Under the strain. the clash Of leader
ship the constant menace of total an
Inhalation, men and women went raving
mad. Their shouts and sobs and means
added little to the stores of courage
husbanded by the saner ones. And,
never ceasing came that deadly irritant,
the rife fire of the Boxers. They had
given up their curved swords, except for
fighting at close quarters, and had
taken to high-powered Mannlicher rifles
furnished them by the Empress Dowager.
At times the bullets swept through the