A MAGNIFICENT DEFENCE.
DR MORRISON ON THE SIEGE OF PEKIN LEGATIONS.
I The full narrative of Die siege of Pekin .1 now being told in the Times by then pecial correspondent at Pekin, Dr Morri,on, whoso reputation, great as il is, will ertainly be enhanced by this really superb .neture of the modern Lucknow. | Dr Morrison does not mince matters, liis evidence as to the complicity of the Jhirese Government in the Boxer outrages 3 crushing. WEWS OF THEIK DEATH WARRANT. I This is how Sir Claude MaeDonald flrsl ! mew for certain ot the diabolical Chintsc plans : • "Un June 9 one of the secretaries of the Aung-li \amen, a, Manchu who has been .broad and speaks French with fluency, .ailed as an intermediary upon Sir UlauiK. ..iacDonald. He is a fiequent visitor at the British Legation and has no anti.oreign prejudices. An incident occurred .n connection with his visit that gave cause .'or thought. Sir Claude bluntly said to aim that he had been informed that a mas<acre of the foreigners at Pekin had been letcrmined on by the present anti-foreign 1 Government". A Chinese would ha~e .aughed away the suggestion, but the secre;ary changed colour and, assuming a look jf serious gravity, said nothing. .Sir Claude ,vas so convinced, from the man's manner, .hat treachery was contemplated that he reported the incident to his colleagues. Theii peremptory messages were sent ordering up he reinforcements" (which, by the way, lid not' arrive). THERE WERE NO DEAD. When the attack on the foreigners began here was an extraordinary fiasco. "Late in the night a large party of Boxers bearing torches were seen moving lown Customs Street towards the Austrian Legation. The machine gun mounted were •a waiting for them. They were allowed to come within 150 yards in the open street r.ear the great cross road, and then the irder was given and the gun rained forth leath. It was a grateful sound. The orches disappeared. They had come within a restricted space and none, we thought, rould have escaped. Eagerly we went forth to count the dead, expecting to find them ; n heaps. But there was not one dead. The gun had been aimed very wide of tha irark. "Two hundred yards north of the Boxers there is a place where 30ft above the level voad the telegraph wires crossed- to the ] station. Next morning they were found to have been cut by the Austrian fire. The Mily persons who suffered injury were pos•ibla wayfarers two miles up the street. There can be little doubt that this fiasco 'lelped to confirm the Boxers in <i belief in their invulnerability." THE CARVING-KNIFE BRIGADE. Every able-bodied man in the Legations had; of course, to fight. "There was also an irregular force of fifty gentlemen of many nationalities, who <!id garrison guard duty in the British Legation, and were most useful. Tbey were known, from the gentleman who enrolled them, as 'TboruhiH's Roughs,' and they bore themselves as the legitimate successors on foot of Roosevelt's Roughriders. Armed with a variety of weapons, from an eleDliant rifle to the fusil de chasse with a picture of the Grand Prix, to all of which arving- knives had been lashed as bayonets, they were known as the 'Carving-Knife Brigade.'
"They were formidable alike to friend md foe. For, all unaccustomed as they svero to the military art — the most- experienced of them was he who had once witnessed tho trooping of the colour in St. James's Park— they had a habit of carrying tho rifle horizontally over the shouldrr, so that when they swung quickly round the blade swept into the throat of the man behind. Diversity of language was another difficulty. "The opening of the wall on the southern extremity of the British Legations was not n vital point. A sentry selected from, the French members of the brigade was usually! stationed here. 'Sentinelle,' he said, in liis best Sandhurst French. There was no reply. Pursing his mouth to convey the correct accent, he raised his voice and repeated 'Sentinelle,' -when a scared voice from the darkness replied, 'Begorra ! and what tha 's that/ MUCH SAFER UJNAKMED. There was no malingerers, only one American onco asked to be excused from a desperate sortie. "Every ono worked at the defences. One of the Ministers — such was the emulation of all to do something — offered his services to the British officer commanding. He volunteered to keep watch and watch by night, but his offer was hampered by qualifications. He was ea-rger to keep watch, he said, but he was very shortsighted, he could see nothing at night, and he had never handled a gun. His offer was not accepted, but the spirit which prompted him to make it was admired." HOW THE CHINESE FOUGHT. Tho Chinese really showed considerable fighting powers. "Day by day the Chinese were pressing us more closely. In the Fu they were gradually wedging their way in from the north-east so as to cut the communications between the British and the Legations to the east. They burned their way from house to liouse. Keeping under cover, they set alight the gables within reach by torches of cloth soaked in kerosene held at the end of long poles. If the roof were , beyond reach they threw over fireballs of kerosene, or, if still further, shot into them with arrows, freighted with burning cloth. In this way and with the use of
the heavy gun tbey battered tt way through L he houses and courtyards of the Prince s The French, who bayoneted all their prisoners to save cartridges, defended their ■negation with magnificent heroism, though .he Minister fled early in despair to the liiiush legation. •HE HAD NO REASON TO THINK." „,,,.. u.n.v.l Uv.ly Ui .»i.Ull»aUll b"" «"• ,0 s>uu>. m»» m i"«i <*•*
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