The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, JULY 23, 1900. CURRENT TOPICS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9822, 23 July 1900, Page 4

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, JULY 23, 1900. CURRENT TOPICS.

The Chinese are displaying in a marked degree their talent for misrepresentation and intrigue. In the latter they perhaps do not differ very greatly from the Western nations, but these would not lie so readily—when confronted with the certainty that lying was useless. If we could bring ourselves to imagine a Western people at this period resorting to wholesale massacre they would at least stand by their act to the extent of admitting it Indeed they might boast of it, as was the case when the Occidental mind looked upon bloodshed and torture as means for earning the favor of God. But China is apparently lying to gain time. Her diplomatists may hope that if they induce in., Europe and America a feeling of doubt as to the actual fate of the foreigners at Pekin, the Powers may not be stimulated to take prompt and comprehensive steps for avenging the murdered.

The underlying idea seems to be that if the Western peoples can be so dealt with as to remain doubtful for a time, the sting of the truth when later it is past concealment will not be so poignant. That appears to be the only reasonable deduction from -the conduct of the Chinese authorities, for that their assertion that the foreigners are safe is aught but a deliberate invention does not commend itself as tenable. The indirect evidence in proof of the awful slaughter which was reported to have taken place in Pekin seems too clear. With regard to the intriguing portion of the situation, the facts remind us too pointedly of European 'dissimulation to surprise us. For examples we may cite Russia, France, or Germany. Take the last named first. Originator of the Triple Alliance as a professed means for providing for the defence of Italy, Austria, and Germany from anticipated or possible attack on the part of Russia and France in combination, she yet played false to both her allies. The best known instance of her perfidy is the secret treaty with Russia which Bismarck negotiated unknown to either Italy or Austria. But she also intrigued with France unknown to Italy in connection with Mediterranean interests, Italy first learning of the trouble brewing for her by British action which checked French designs there. As mnch of this matter as the diplomatists cared to allow to leak out was made known when the British fleet visited Italian waters some time ago. Then take France. While professing to be straining every nerve towards an understanding with Germany, she was at the same time trying to induce Britain to accept the help of France in a war against the Kaiser. Britian, by the way, without allowing France to gain a hint of what was going on, made known at Berlin the substance of the French advances to Downing street. As for Russia, she convened the Hague Conference, and while it was in progress was engaged in the most strenuous endeavors to double her fleet, add largely to her army, and re-arm her artillery. It is not necessary therefore to go to China for Machiavellian diplomacy. Indeed, one may hardly withhold from the Chinese a meed of admiration as adepts in Bismarckian arts. On the one hand we have her cunningly seeking to cut out France from the concert of the allies, and on the other to induce Japan to back out from her present position by pleading with the Mikado to join China in opposing the remainder of the world. Then, again, we have the declarations that the Chinese love and respect the British and hate only the Russians. Li Hung Chang, who may be regarded as the head and front of existing Chinese methods, is after all but Mouraievff with a difference ; and to match Prince Tuan, the self-appointed Emperor, one need not go further than Bulgaria and the royal scoundrel who connived at the assassination of his ex - Premier, M. Stambuloff. To take a more generally known illustration, there is little in the way of perfidy and corruption in Pekin which could not be matched in Constantinople.

We may conclude that the Powers cannot much longer be kept from obtaining direct evidence of the fate of their Ambassadors. Prince Tuan, as President of the Imperial Council, thus usurping the position which ought to be occupied by the unfortunate young man who has been either murdered or interned by the Empress Dowager, is now committed to the statement that on the 18th of July all the Ambassadors but Baron de Ketteler were safe. To this France very justly retorts that if that be so it is strange the Ambassadors are not themselves allowed to communicate with their respective Governments, aud such a retort is unanswerable from its very nature. There is no doubt at all that if the Ambassadors were safe, and were allowed liberty of action, they would have communicated long ago with their Foreign Offices. In any case, therefore, Prince Tuan stands confessedly wrong, for he asserts that the Ambassadors are pro tec ted at the Imperial Court.

Li Hung Chang has had to admit,, practically, that this is a falsehood. Asked to convey a telegraphic message to pne of the ambassadors, the

Marquis Raggi, who if alive is at Pekin, the cunning old rascal was forced to confess that he could not do so. It would be inspiriting to learn that after all the Ambassadors were alive, together with the hundreds or thousands of less exalted personages who are supposed to have perished in the Pekin massacre, but nothing but plain proof of the fact in the shape of the supposed victims themselves, alive and well, would serve to that end. In the meantime the Powers must prepare to award punishment. Japan and Russia so far display the keenest sense of the danger of the position. They reply to the misrepresentations of Prince Tuan and the Empress Dowager by sending more troops and more guns to China. They in this act wisely, not only because the existing problem is serious, but because when it appears to be solved they will stand confronting each other as objectors to the solution.

The cabled announcement the other day that De Wet and a large force of Bogrs had broken through the lines the British troops seeking to drawa cordon round him in the Betkldkem district appears to have been only partially correct, if in any way so. By our to-day’s cable messages we learn that as De Wet ran be was met and attacked near Lindley, which is only thirty miles from Bethlehem, and sustained what reads like a decided reverse at the hands of Colonel Little. Thus we are told that the Boers were “ repulsed and broken into two sections.” The chances are that when fuller news of this fight comes to hand it will turn ont that the British force which sundered De Wet’s commando was smaller that the Boer/ detachment it defeated. We assume that because Colonel Little is a cavalry commander, and would not be likely to have more than his regiment with him. De Wet’s force is stated to have consisted of fifteen hundred men.

We suppose Wolmarans may be taken as a fair type of the Boer patriot —a man with a keen eye to the main chance and without the slightest regard for an < ath. He may thank his stars that he is in the hands of the British instead of one of the Continental Powers. They have a weakness for shooting without ceremony prisoners who are released upon parole and who are subsequently found to have taken arms again. When to ordinary parole the solemnity of a neutrality oath is added the culprit is in even a worse case. Yet probably this thievish gentleman whose “plant” of gold has been found, together with concealed arms, will get off with slight punishment. However, he will feel the loss of his bullion keenly, and if his other property is confiscated so much the better. For the rest, he may go to St Helena or Ceylon for a while. Possibly he will consider that he should not be punished at all, seeing that traitors in the employ of the Cape Government have been let off with five years’ imprisonment. Wolmarans may at least plead that he was no traitor to begin with, although as an ending he did a bit of thieving and false swearing.