The Telegram. — 1901-01-08 (Weymouth, Dorset, England)

SOUTH STREET, DORCHESTER. [4161.  Time brings UR closer to the awful work of the allied Army ie China. During the week there have appeared two authoritative accounts of the motiveless cruelties that have been perpetrated in the name of peace, The Times correspondent singled out the German force for an exposure of '' its harshness in punishing without discrimination innocent and guilty, and in pillaging systematically people who were already conquered, harrying the country, aacriticing many innocent lives, levying fines on the quiet towns and villages, destroying the authority of the Meat officials, and fast pro. yoking peaceful districts into anarchy... And Dr. Dillon, in one of the leading reviews, draws a similar picture :- Tae once fertile valley of the radio has become • silent wilderness, and the track of the advancing army of civilieattuu was marked by an orgie of lust and murder which spared neither age nor helpless innocence.  The root causes of all these excesses is sheer ignorance. The soldiers of the Powers, not understanding the Chinaman, refused to regard him as a human being like themselves—although the Boxers were doing precisely what Lord Salisbury urged Englishmen to do at home, namely, iorming rifle clubs to meet the invader. Perhaps, also, there would have been none of these international crimes against civilisation if the terrible war in south Africa had ended and left us free to send a sufficient force to China to carry out the work in • humane way. Meantime, we note that the formulated demands of the Powers have been met by the wily Chinaman with a list of 200 questions •  God of the dove and olive branch, God of the shut and shell, God of the waves that waft the ehipa 3 Where death and danger dwell, 0 ,quickly send Thy dew of peace To end war's dreary drought, And let Thy white-winged doves again Build in the cannon's mouth  , The end of a century no more marks as epoch than a milestone marks a definite stage on a journey, or than i 4 revolution terminates a wheel. Nevertheless, the world has been taking advantage of the hour to review its progress and to look forward. It has been a century of emancipation theologically, politically. industrially. Some people gloomily point to the present phase of political reaction as a bad sign. They torget that the tremendous reaction of a hundred years ago proved to be only the prelude to a lung period of unexampled progress. The cool-headed observer of the present day will recognise that if a combination of circumstances has for the time given power to the reaction throughout the c.vilised 'quail, there are still in this country and elsewhere the elements of a new and higher movement, the necessary feeling after better things, the desire for justice and for enlightenment—all waiting for the leader's touch to waken into organised life.  Forward looking, there :re espied develcpuiants in all branches of human knowledge, the extent of which we no more know than our forefathers in 1801 knew the wonders of the. century we have all lived in. In this rural part of England one of the most visible marvels of the age has been mechanical locomotion. We can scarcely realise hereabout that in other parts of the country the problem has already arisen, How to provide for the greater speed of trains. Faster journeys on the present tracks would mean fearful danger to life. A scheme has therefore been devips4 for • railway between Manchester and Liverpool on which trains will he run at the speed of 110 miles an hour. Next session Parliament  _ I will be asked to permit the construction o