The Northern News. — 1896-08-15 (Carlisle, Cumbria, England)

THE CHINESE SOLDIERS AND GEIRMAN OFFICERS.  An observation made by Li Hung Chang at one of the German military reviews was that with ten battalions of such troops as he saw before him he would have driven out the Japanese. The details of an episode which reach me, says a London correspondent, from China show how German officers in the Chinese service are treated. Shortly after the close of the war with Japan Chang Chili Lung, then acting Viceroy at Nankin, obtained from the German Government the services of thirty-five military officers, of various ranks, to organise and drill the forces for his provinces, which include Shanghai and the most wealthy and exposed parts of the Yangtsze valley. The Viceroy procured a large parade ground and began erecting barracks, residences, and the like for the officers and the force which they were to organise. But from the time the officers reached Nankin up to the present they have been the victims of constant attacks by the mob, by other soliders, and by the very men whom they were expected to organise into a military force. Again and again they have been wounded and compelled to fly to the nearest refuge. These assaults culminated in an organised attack by a body of Chinese troops on the German officers while drilling the men, in the course of which one of the Germans was half-killed with knives and spears. The Chinese authorities issued their proclamations without avail, and at last they were obliged to consider whether it would not be better to send home the Germans altogether. Ultimately they decided to do this, but when it was intimated that this meant Paying-up the Whole of the Salaries for the whole term of the engagements—three years in most eases—and when they saw that two German men-of-war were at Nankin to see justice was done, they altered their minds, and decided to keep the officers, but to send them away from Nankia, where their assailants were the members of the Viceroy's bodyguard. Accordingly. I now learn that they have been sent away down the river to Woo sung, at the mouth of the Shanghai river, where the troops trained will have to be sent to them and then drafted back to Nankin, a journey of several hundred miles each way, when they are ready. But at Woosung there are Chinese troops also, and these have to be removed elsewhere. lest they should murder their instructors and bring about an international crisis. Meantime the Viceroy has issued a proclamation begging the troops and people not to attack the Germans, inasmuch as " they are exerting themselves in the interests of China.' Thus the German military officers have as bad a time in the Chinese service as the British naval officers; and while Li Hung Chang is flattering German troops and wishing that he had some like them, German military instructors in China are flying for their lives from their pupils, and are ultimately obliged to go away to a remote place, where their pupils have to be sent.after them to M get instruction. oreover, it is out anof materials such as these that he proposes to creata a new army and a new navy in five years.  -----Sir H. liaselock-Allen, M.P., who lately suffered from a severe bronchial attack, from which he has but partially recovered, is ordered by his medical adviser not to engage in public speaking for two owing to the months. aecTihdeendtiraetctorrro.ssotofit,hhea3vleic jlluasntdiftßuaeillvaays,pecial caution to all their drivers and firemen. The Board remind them of the necessity of " strictly obeying" the instructionsof laid down in the various notices issued with respect to the published on various parts of the Midland Railway. through junctions and curves and on entering terminq stations. " Drivers disregarding these instructions, it is added. "will be severely dealt with,"