COUNT WALDERSEE'S JOURNEY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 7046, 6 October 1900, Page 4

COUNT WALDERSEE'S JOURNEY.

The New York correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, writing on August 23rd, says:— "The fetes and ceremonials attending the appointment of Field-Marshal Count yon Waldersee while the Allies at Taku and Peking relieved the Embassies have caused much amusement in the United States; where the matter is now becoming a joke in the music-halls and the comic press. Even the usually very serious and staid New YorJr Times has this to say to-day on the subject: — If the Com-mander-in-Chief of the Allied forces in China does not hurry up, he is going to be left out of the procession. His title is a most imposing one, and it is said he has even, started for the scene of action ; but he is still a long way from the front. Like the warhorse of Scripture, he scenteth battle from afar, but no commander-in-chief ever set out for the front with mote ceremony. Count yon Waldersee was accepted by the Allied Powers of Christendom. The Emperor William, the most spectacular War God since Broglie, who had always a whiff of grape shot up his sleeve to end the French Revolution, presented to him the baton of a Field- Marshal with which to conduct the military concert of the Powers. The Emperor also fired heavy volleys at the enemy at long range through the columnß of the Lokalanzeiger. There were music and fireworks, and even poetry. It was a grand time —as grand as Mr Winkle's when he wrote a poem in a wineshop. Then the Commanderin- Chief of the Allied forces in China started for the front by way of Berlin, Rcme, and apparently any other agreeable city whioh had a reception, a deputation, or just an address of congratulation on Hand. Meanwhile the Allied forces in China have been guilty of a gross breach of courtesy. They have not waited for the commander; they have not even sent him an address of congratulation. On the contrary, they have incontinently bundled themselves into Peking and saved the lives of the Envoys. They have planted their flags on the walls of the Chinese capital. The German flag was omitted by accident — an accident which would not have occured if the Commander-in-Chief had been on the scene of action. An acute stage of the troubles in China seems to have been thoughtlessly ended by the Allies without their Commander-in-Chief, who was really very busy being received and ovated. '