CHINA DECLARES WAR ON RUSSIA, POLICE FORCE, AND WAGONMAKERS STILL IN FIRST PLACE

 

Li Hung Chang.

Cortland Evening Standard, Wednesday, July 18, 1900.

ANOTHER MASSACRE.

Foreigners and Native Converts Killed at Tai Yuen Fu.

CHINA DECLARES WAR ON RUSSIA.

Li Hung Chang Says England and France Have Threatened to Take Life for Life if Ministers Are Killed. Disturbances in Manchuria.

   LONDON, July 18—According to a dispatch from Shanghai to The Daily Mail dated yesterday a massacre occurred on July 8 at Tai Yuen Fu, capital of the province of Shan Si, 40 foreigners and 100 native converts being killed.

   The Daily Mail publishes a sensational dispatch from St. Petersburg, dated Monday, which asserts that there is no doubt that China has declared war against Russia.

   The Russian press, says the correspondent "is restricted to the publication of official details, and the publication of many dispatches from the front has been prohibited. I hear however, from a reliable source that the Chinese troops and the Boxers seized a Russian transport vessel laden with munitions near Aigun (on the Amur river about 18 miles from the Russian frontier) killing almost the entire Russian escort.

   "They next suddenly attacked and bombarded the town of Blagovechensk (capital of the Amur government on the Amur river). The garrison held out bravely but was finally overwhelmed. Nearly all perished and the town was burned."

   The Daily Telegraph has the following from Canton, dated July 16: "In an interview with the foreign consul, Li Hung Chang said that his mission to Pekin was twofold—to save the lives of the foreign ministers and to arrange the best possible terms of peace with the allied powers. The American and French consuls while congratulating him upon these commendable purposes, reminded him of his pledges to protect foreigners and to preserve peace in Southern and Central China.

Will Take Life For Life.

   "Earl Li replied that he must obey the summons to Pekin but that he had taken all necessary precautions. He added that he had received important cables from Lord Salisbury and M. Delcasse, demanding protection for the foreign ministers in Pekin and threatening to take life for life of the high officials responsible if the ministers were murdered. He told the consul that he was the only man in China who dared transmit such messages to the empress but that he had sent them verbatim and that he did not doubt they had exerted a powerful influence in saving the ministers' lives.

   "He went on to say that as the Doyen of the viceroys, he had also induced all the other viceroys, except two, to join in a lengthy memorial to the throne, asking security for the foreigners, suppression of the Boxers and full reparation for the damage done and the lives lost.

   "To the American who inquired about the actual safety of the foreign ministers in Pekin, Li answered that he had received no news from Pekin within the past week, but that if they were alive, he was almost certain matters could be satisfactorily arranged with the allied powers.

 

LI'S NEW STATION.

Appointed Viceroy of Chi Li, the Seat of All the Trouble.

   WASHINGTON, July 18.—The appointment of Li Hung Chang to the viceroyalty of the province of Chi Li is regarded here as particularly significant as the province of Chi Li is the seat of practically all of the present trouble. Pao Ting is the capital of the province, but within its borders are located Pekin the capital of the empire and Tien Tsin where the first great battle has just occurred.

   Li Hung Chang is known not to desire service so far north. He maintains he has less influence in that section of China than in his present viceroyalty, the headquarters of which are at Canton. It is deemed probable however, that he has been persuaded to take the appointment in view of the well understood fact that he is the most influential Chinaman among foreign nations.

 

CHINESE AFFAIRS.

GRAVE COMPLICATIONS BECAUSE OF RUSSIA'S RELATIONS.

If China Has Declared War Against Russia it Puts a New Phase on the Subject—No Confidence Put in Chinese Assurances That Legations are Safe.

   LONDON, July 18.—If the news of a Chinese invasion of Siberia prove true it will of course immensely complicate the situation from the international point of view. As stated in the Associated Press, St. Petersburg dispatch of July 13, the Chinese had already peremptorily ordered all Russians to quit Manchuria, but no one imagined they would be audacious enough to break out of their own country and attack Russian territory. Such an attack, if it has been made, of course constitutes in itself a declaration of war rendering formal notification needless.

   A separate attack by the Chinese on Russia means giving Russia, according to the views expressed in Europe, additional excuse for an isolated descent on Pekin and an additional claim to assert greater influence then the other powers and obtain greater compensation when the day of settlement arrives. Hence extreme uneasiness has been created in the chancelleries by this latest development.

   As to the latest Chinese assurances of the safety of the European legations at Pekin they are not credited here. On the contrary it is bettered these assurances have been dictated by a desire to save the native city of Tien Tsin. The Associated Press correspondent at Shanghai wires under date of July 16 that there is hardly a doubt that Sheng, the Chinese administrator of telegraphs, is withholding information in his possession. The news of the massacre as already cabled to the United States may be taken as correct. The dispatch adds that there is evidence that the Woo Sung forts (at the mouth of the Woo Sung river and ten miles north of Shanghai) are being strengthened and supplied with large quantities of ammunition. It is hoped in London that the landing of 22,000 Japanese troops, which it is expected will be effected to-day, and the arrival of Indian troops will enable the allies to reinforce Shanghai.

 

Baron Clemens von Ketteler

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

The Chinese Situation.

   The condition of affairs in China just now forms the principal theme of convention among all civilized peoples. It is questionable just how much we really know as to the situation there at present. The legations of all the powers have been shut up in Pekin since early in June and the only thing that has come from them that seems to be authentic is the report of the murder of Baron von Ketteler, the German ambassador. Several weeks ago a force of soldiers and marines made up from the different nations set out to relieve the legations. This was under the command of the British Admiral Seymour, the Americans being under the direct command of Capt. McCalla of the U. S. navy, but the troops had to retreat and with difficulty and with great loss made their way back to the coast.

   Meanwhile conflicting reports have come from Pekin but all through Chinese messengers and from Chinese sources, not one word coming directly from the legations or the missionaries themselves. There has seemed to be no difficulty in the Chinese getting messages through, and the claim has been very naturally made that if the Chinese who claim to be loyal could get word so easily through the lines of the Boxers, why could they not also get word through from the legations. At one time word has come that the foreigners were all safe in Pekin; that they were shut up within the walls of one of the embassies and were making a gallant defense; and then at another time the word has come that they were all massacred. It has seemed to the world at large as though it was a play for time, and that the Chinese were trying to break the news gradually to the civilized nations that their representatives were all slain, hoping thereby to mitigate the vengeance that will surely fall upon their heads if these things are true.

   Finally word came which was conceded to be true by the Chinese themselves that on the evening of July 6 the Boxers opened a terrific fire with heavy guns upon the walls of the British legation within which the foreigners were assembled, and that at length on July 7 a breach was made in the walls, through which the Boxers rushed, the defenders having exhausted all their ammunition, and that they put to death every foreigner and Christian within the legation and within the city. Through Shanghai additional word came that the foreigners, having found that they were to be overwhelmed, put to death all their women and children to save them from torture at the hands of the Chinamen, these reports were confirmed from several different places, but all through Chinese lines of communication.

   Yesterday Chinese Minister Wu at Washington received a cablegram from the minister at London which was also authenticated by Sheng, the imperial director of posts and telegraph at Shanghai, saying that the foreign ministers were all alive on July 9 and that the utmost efforts would be made by the Chinese government to protect them from the Boxers. This date is two days later than the time upon which the massacre was previously said to have occurred. In consequence, we hardly know now what to think, unless this is a still further play for time, but this last report seems to be quite generally credited.

   Meanwhile, the situation in Tien Tsin was beginning to get almost as bad as in Pekin and the allied forces resolved to take the city, which it did after a three days' fight covering the last three days of last week. The city was finally secured on Saturday and the Chinese routed.

   But the Boxer difficulties seem to be spreading. The troubles so far have been in Northern China. Now there are rumors of uprisings as far south as Canton. Li Hung Chang has been in that city since the trouble began and has now been ordered to report in Pekin. The powers have been reluctant to have him go, fearing that without his presence in Canton troubles there might increase. Great Britain is said to have another reason for objecting. She knows that Li Hung Chang has been on intimate terms with the Dowager Empress and fears that he sympathizes with the Boxer movement and that if he gets up to Pekin the troubles will be aggravated instead of being settled.

   But even with a victory at Tien Tsin there is scarcely a beginning made of a settlement of the insurrection. An army of upwards of 100,000 men may be necessary. Japan has the most men the nearest by, and the objections to her using them are now removed by the permission of the powers to her to go ahead, so that she win probably have 30,000 men there in two weeks. The United States expects to have 10,000 men there before Sept. 1. Great Britain, France, Germany and Russia have troops on the way. But the accounts of the fighting at Tien Tsin emphasize the seriousness of the task before the forces of Christendom.

   It is a far different story from those which came of the encounters of Chinese and Japanese in their recent war. China's armies were men of straw, their weapons of wood. They were helpless before the soldiers of the ocean empire, armed with modern guns. A wonderful change has come in the few years since that war. The Chinese seem to have learned the lesson it taught. They have possessed themselves of modern guns. They have learned to use them, under European masters. They never were cowards. Armed with equal weapons and skillfully led, Europe, the United States and Japan have a foe in China that will be hard to crush. Indeed, the chance of success for the allies lies in the fact that China's drilled and armed troops are limited. It has the advantage at the start. Its armaments and forces are available. And it has shown already in using these that it will be unwise for the powers to undertake more at present than to afford succor to foreigners in China. For the work of avenging the murders committed and exacting compensation they must make giant preparations. The part of the United States may require the assembling of congress. For in the performance of that part there can be no faltering. The lives of unoffending Americans taken in Pekin cry for vengeance and must not cry in vain.

 

THE LATEST MESSAGE

Says Legations are Holding Out, but Hard Pressed and Hungry.

   CHICAGO, July 18.—A dispatch to The Record from Chefoo, July 15, (via Shanghai, July 18) says: "A communication was received to-day by the Japanese consul from the Japanese minister at Pekin dated June 29. It is said that all the ministers are in the British legation, short of food, hard pressed and unable to hold out many days."

   This is significant for it is the latest dispatch from Pekin, aside from those through Chinese sources since Sir Robert Hart's message of June 29, when he said the guns were trained on the legation.

 

S. N. Holden.

POLICE FORCE.

IMPROMPTU SHAKE UP LAST NIGHT BY COMMON COUNCIL.

Chief of Police Jas. A. Smith Reduced to Ranks and Former Chief E. D. Parker Restored to the Head—Full Board Not Present—New Flagman.

   A thunderbolt again visited the [Cortland] common council last night and amid the howling of the elements outside, it struck with full force in the camp of the city legislators where there was supposed to be peace and harmony. By the action of the board, Chief of Police Jas. A. Smith was reduced to the ranks and former Chief E. D. Parker was put back in his old place.

   The action last night was an outcome of a change made recently whereby Chief Parker was reduced and Mr. Smith made chief. Last night Mr. Thompson brought up the subject of changing the hours when the patrolmen should go on duty and advocated the theory that the chief should have the power to change the hours of duty of the men on the force. This was opposed by Mayor Holden who thought that the board should have full control of the police board in order to get the best service from it. This Mr. Thompson construed as an admission on the part of the mayor that he did not have confidence in the chief, and said that this being the case he would move that Mr. Smith be reduced to the ranks. Mr. Skeele seconded this motion, and Mr. Buck moved as an amendment that it be laid on the tabled saying that the board had never acted on such a measure before without all being present and it would be only courtesy to Mr. Wood and Mr. McKinney to have the measure go over till they were present. Mayor Holden asked that the motion be withdrawn, stating that in all probability the matter would settle back, if carried then, to the same positions as are held now when the full board met again. This, however, was not heeded and Mr. Yager called for the ayes and nays. Messrs. Yager, Thompson and Skeele voted for the measure, and Mr. Buck voted against it. The measure was declared carried by Mayor Holden.

   Mr. Thompson then moved that the hours of patrolmen be charged so that for the next thirty days Night Captain Nix would go on duty at 6 P. M. and Patrolman Smith go on duty at 9 P. M. Mr. Skeele called for the ayes and nays, and the vote stood identically with the previous one. This was declared carried.

   A delegation from Grant-st. was present and offered a petition asking for a flagman at the Grant-st. crossing of the D., L. & W. R. R. By a unanimous vote this was given.

   The board adjourned to meet the first Tuesday night in August.

 

LOST A FINGER.

Benj. Peters Came in Unfortunate Contact With a Buzz Saw.

   Soon after 1 o'clock this afternoon Benjamin Peters, who is employed in the shipping room at the factory of the Cortland Forging Co., was slitting two-inch lumber with a buzz saw. In some way which he does not himself exactly understand his left hand came in contact with the saw with disastrous effect. The fingers were badly cut. He was taken to Dr. Higgins' office and the doctor amputated the middle finger at the middle joint. The forefinger and thumb will be saved, also the ring finger with some scars. The little finger was not hurt.

 

FOR APPENDICITIS.

Operation Performed Upon Paul McAuliffe at the Hospital This Morning.

   Paul McAuliffe, the 7-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. David E. McAuliffe, was taken ill Monday afternoon with what has proved to be an attack of acute appendicitis. The little fellow suffered from an attack of a similar nature in a milder form about a month ago and recovered without an operation. Dr. Neary was summoned Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon both Dr. Neary and Dr. Higgins made an examination and decided that an operation was the only chance of saving the boy's life. He was taken to the hospital this morning where the operation was performed by Dr. Dana, assisted by Dr. Neary and Dr. Higgins. The boy stood the operation well and the chances for his recovery are favorable.

 

STILL AT THE HEAD.

SEVENTH STRAIGHT—WON YESTERDAY AT ALBANY.

Rome Lost to Schenectady but Utica Defeated Starchmakers and is Yet Very Troublesome to Cortland—A Hot Race Between Three Leaders in Which Cortland is Holding Her Own.

 

 

BREVITIES.

   —Yesterday was the hottest day of the year in Cortland, and the last two nights have been about the most unbearable, but the cool change of to-day is most acceptable to all.

   —New display advertisements to-day are—M. A. Hudson, Haviland china, page 8; Glann & Clark, Two shoe specials, page 6; Tyler & Smith, Men's and children's suits, page 8; J. W. Cudworth, Optical talks, page 6.