LOOT CONVOYS LEAVING CITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14931, 2 March 1912, Page 7

LOOT CONVOYS LEAVING CITY

FRENZIED ' DANCING : ROUND

FIRES.

(Received March. ,1. 9.40 p.m)

■■-■■'.■■- Pekin, March 1. Owing to non-payment of their wages, 5000 soldiers of the Third r Division burnt their quarters* were near headquarters. , ,- *■'.:■■• -'■; " Armed ' with rifles and bayonets, they made a scattered search for shops, particularly goldsmiths' and pawnbrokers' shops. ;(< The looters constantly .fired their, rifles in order to intimidate the populace. Any shopkeepers who resisted were bayoneted. A pawnshop near the residence of the Times' correspondent (Dr. Morrison) was set on fire, and the blaze soon assumed large proportions. ' It was a strange spectacle to see gangs of mutineers dancing around the conflagration, shooting madly ! into the flames, and then rushing I into shops and staggering off laden with loot wrapped in blankets and curtains. Meanwhile, foreign troops rescued foreigners and took them to the Legation quarters. ■ ■ ■;■ . ; At • mid-day seven great fires were burning, ; but the shooting was j dwindling owing to the : expenditure of ammunition and the exhaustion of the looters, parties of whom were leaving the city with ponies laden with their spoil. WESTERNISING THE ORIENT. NEW MARKET POSSIBILITIES. ' ~ Sydney, March 1. . At the picnic held yesterday *by the local Chinese *to inaugurate the establish' ment of the Republic of China, the speakers dealt with the great possibility of trade developments between Australia and the new China.' ■; / The president of the Young China League declared that the one ambition of the united ' parties * was ; peace and devotion to ' the -arts. •■ v The•; advantage to peace (of China's awakening was that (it meant the adoption of Western ideas. , ; This particularly applied to food and clothing, and the development ; / would greatly" interest producers . of wool and wheat, enormous quantities of which commodities would bo required.