THE CHINESE TROUBLE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2956, 30 November 1900, Page 3

THE CHINESE TROUBLE.

MISSIONARIES AND CONVERTS RESCUED.

Jnited Press Association —Per Electric Telegraph—Copyright. Received 9.25 mti,, November 30th. HONGKONG, . November 29. ■ Ten thousand Boxers and regular troops besieging 20 missionaries and 3000 Chinese converts in Eastern Mongolia were defeated, mainly by the splendid assistance given by Russian bluejackets with quick-firers, from Shanhaikwan.

THE AMERICAN SOLDIER IN CHINA.

That the American and the Australasian soldier have much in common is the impression left on one’s mind after reading the “ Daily Telegraph’s ” China, correspondent’s picture of the Americans of the lekin relief force. Discipline was least visible in the American camp. The correspondent says:--On occasions we felt inclined, to take our hats off to every American soldier we saw; - on other occasions the army seemed to us no more than a mob of tramps. Th# Americans, an officer told me, believe that tbe fighting unit is the man, not tbe section, nor the company, nor the regiment. They, therefore, encourage individualism, and encourage it to what men brought up on European! military traditions must consider an extraordinary and _ extravagant length. The American soldier considers himself quite as knowing and capable as his officer,, and what is surprising is that the latter takes no trouble to make him wiser. On the march, it appeared to me, the American soldier pleased himself, as to whether he would “hike,” as they called it, with his company or by bnnsolf. There were always American soldiers wandering up and down the line. They were very friendly with the British marines and saillors, and four or five individuals were always to be found attached to our Naval Brigade. They would march, and eat, and sleep with it, as if no such thing as an American army existed. If small parties of the infantry lost their way, or could not find their camp, they were in no wise put it. They would bivouac for the night next the nearest troops, and move on with them in the morning. I think if there had been no fighting at all, the foreign observers would have gone back to their homes with a very poor ' opinion of the efficiency of the American troops.. Luckily foi? General Chaffee -and his soldiers there was fighting. When you see an American private advancing under fire, you begin to think there is something in the idea that the fighting unit of the future is the individual. Private Silas P. Holt acts by himself for himself. He and his companions make for a common objective not like stiff trained soldiers, but like panthers stalking ai prey. Their eyesflash, their lithe bodies swing forward. There is murder and deadly intentness in every movement. When the American soldier lies down to fire, he does so with the intention of killing somebody. Most troops fire not at the enemy, but in the direction of the enemy. Not so tbe Allied to thpir feline stealthiness, the Americans in battle have a most reckless courage. At times they expose themselves with a strange contempt of death. An officer will take chances no European would care to take. The field battery was generally found in places where no one read in tactics would have dared to put it. General Chaffee and his staff always rode where tbe enemy was most likely to see and shoot at them. Young and inexperienced correspondents were warned by older hands not to go during an action near prominent buildings, large graves, or tbe American staff.