THE CHINESE CRISIS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 49, 6 December 1900, Page 3

THE CHINESE CRISIS.

THE CHURCH IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. HEROIC DEFENCE OF THE CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL. (From our own correspondent.) Wk have heard a e^eat deal indeed about the inconveniences which the membere of the Corps Diplomatique and other foreigners hare had to put ; tip with in Peking during the niege, but comparatively little of the almost total extirpation of Christianity in whole Viceroyalties, and of the frightful means by which that extirpation, was brought about. Yet history, it seems to me, will pay very little attention indeed to the lamentable fact that for several weeka delicately-nurtured men and women had to live on horse-flesh and rice and m momentary fear of death, while, attaching a great deal of importance to the destruction of the Hanlin Library, with all ita wealth of priceless volumes and to the barbarous murder of thousand— perhaps tens of thousands, of Christians. Massacres on a much larger scale might, it is true, mean little in a country where human life is so cheap as in China, but these massacres seem to me to have nipped Chinese Christianity in the bud. Their effort will, in fact, be the same ac that of the massacres of Christians in the seventeenth century in Japan, and China, when it awakens, and it soon must awaken and follow in the footsteps of its Eastern neighbor, it will be emphatically a Pagan nation. The consequent effeot on the course of history will be considerable. While awaiting authoritative detail, whioh I am to have in » few weeks from a Peking resident better able perhaps than anyone else m the Chinese capital to furnish me with Buoh detail, I Bhould wish to draw attention in your oolumna how enormously disproportionate is our sympathy (1) for the foreign community in Peking and (2) for the Chinese Christians. Yet the latter seem to me to deserve our sympathy moat, for their sufferings have been dreadful. Two months ago a distinguished ecclesiastic here said to me. La chritienti en Chine est tout a fait iivalUee ; but it seems to me that it has been murdered as well as robbed. Patting together the isolated items of news which have so far come to hand in regard to this subject, we became convinced that the damage which has been done to mission work in China— not only in North China bat in Hunan and other places— is almost irreparable. Such items are innumerable, so I shall oonfine myself to giving one or two of them. A high Chinese official who recently wrote • A Dairy of Events in Peking ' for the North China Daily Newt says, under date of June 29, that ' When the fighting between the Chinese troops and the Boxers first began, a large number of native Christiana made a sortie from the British Legation with the object of escaping. They were all armed with rifles and struck at whomsoever opposed them. Many of the regular troops and Boxers then chased the Christian! and went about hunting for them, so that no one could venture on the streets. No mercy was shown to the Christians, and wherever found they were at once killed. Some of the houses searched were also Bet fire to afterwards, and the Christians who were taken out of them were led to the Lamp-light Market, where they were burned to cinders.' THE SUFFEBINGS OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS. This is what happened in Peking. The same scenes took place however, as far Bouth as Hen-cian-fu in Hunan, where, in addition to the Christians being murdered and their dwellings destroyed, the Franciscan Bishop of the diocese, Moneignor Antonio Fantosati, and three Fathers were put to death. In Po-tung-fu and in Mutangsimilar scenes were enacted. In Manchuria, to use the words of a non -Catholic correspondent there, 'the learned and genial Bishop Guillon, of Moukden, the gentle and pioua Pere Emonet and a brother priest, Sister St. Croix, and another lady of the Frenoh mission have all won the martyr's crown, and the ohurohes (including the fine Catholic Cathedral), hospitals, and mission houses have been looted and burned.' But my object here is not to deal with the sufferings of foreign missionaries : it is to draw attention to the incomparably greater sufferings— greater, that is, more widespread — of the mute, uncomplaining Christian natives. This ease of Moukden is an instance of how the latter are neglected in this connection, for, while much has been written about the murder of the Frenoh missionaries and nuns, not a word has been said, so far as I am aware, about the slaughter of converts that occurred at at the same time. Nearly the same silence is maintained in the case of that terrible massacre at Chenohon, Hochien Prefecture, Chihli Province, where the troops of General Li Ping-heng put to death no fewer than 1000 Christians. In spite of the appalling nature and extent of this tragedy little attention was, as I have said, paid to it by Europeans until it was found that it had stirred up the indignation of the prominent Chinese authorities south of the Yellow River, several memorials being despatched to Peking denouncing Li for the deed and demanding his dismissal from office. One of these memorials was sent by Li Hung Chang. All evidence tendß in short to show that our anxiety for the fate of the Ministers in Peking blinded us to the fact that the extirpation of a section of the Chinese people, a most important section, too, when their potential as apart from their numerical value in considered, was being carried on in a manner which reoalls the stories told by Egyptian hieroglyphics and Babylonian tablets but seldom recorded in annals written on paper. We have in fact seen butoheries on a frightful scale accompanied by an intense hatred of Christianity worthy of a Nero. Some journalists blame the missionaries, it is true, and the converts, but I think that these journalists would have found Nero to have been a very good fellow if they had lived in his time, and quite right in preventing those vagabond Galileans from meddling with the worship of the immortal gods and the ordered family life of the people. There can

be no doubt that the Chinese struok as fiercely and as direotly at Christianity, as any persecuting Roman Emperor did ; a glance at the edicts issued during the last few months will prove that at once. I would especially call attention to the proclamation issued on August 7 last by Chang, Viceroy of the Hukuang provinces, and one of the most liberal-minded and pro-foreign satraps in China, ' in obedience.' as he says himself, ' to the Imperial edict of the 2nd of August received through Yuan, Governor of Shantung, per despatch dated sth of August.' In the proclamation the Christians are practically asked Lo renounce their religion or uudiue llie heaviest penalties of the law ; and, apart altogether from the edicts, the conduot of the Chinese auinuriliea iv very umuy Jieitricts was exactly that of the old Roman prefects — ' Renounce Christianity or die.' Many Chinese Christians no doubt renounced their faith, but we know for certain that many more refused to do ho and died in consequence. Now Ido not see how we can withhold from these men the title of martyr, which we apply to those who died under exactly similar circumstances in the early ages of the Church, and I hope and trust that the day will come when the Holy Father will canonize them as he has canonized the Japanese who died at Nagasaki in exactly the same case and under almost the so me conditions some 300 years ago. THE BBAVEBY OF THE CONVERTS. The sceptical may be inolined to question the truth of these stories of wholesale massacre, and, after the succession of glaring falsehoods that have emanated from the tap-rooms of Shanghai, their want of belief can be easily understood. But they must bear in mind the fact that while there was a tendency among newspaper correspondents to exaggerate the dangers and difficulties to which the Co rpx D ipl omat ique and other foreigners in Peking were exposed till the middle of August last no such tendency existed with regard to the native Christians ; quite contrariwise. Your correspondent has carefully read much of the news that has emanated from Peking up to the moment of writing and that is his impression, an impression which is strengthened into certainty by other circumstances. That the Europeans who were shut up in Peking and their friends throughout the world should, in their common agony of apprehension, pay little or no attention to the condition of the native Christians was but natural under the circumstances, but the besieged foreigners seem to have pushed their indifference a little too far. Early in the history of the siege the missionaries shut up in the British Legation had sought permission for 3000 converts to come within the defended line. Permission was refused, and every urgent request, written and verbal, was met by ■ impossible.' Whether these men and women were to be left to their fate because those responsible feared treachery or famine or to be burdened does not appear. It is not a pleasant tale to tell, though happily the converts were finally permitted to occupy a neighboring palace. This concession was made owing to the vigorous representations made on their behalf by Dr. Morrison. The famous correspondent of the Ti mes has no love for missionaries, but his ' boy,' who is a Catholic, persuaded him to save his (the boy's) father and mother, and the experience had such a good effect on the Doctor and threw such a new light on the convert question that Sir Claude Mac Donald was shortly after surprised to hear the journalistic missionary hater pleading for the admission of the converts who were happily, as I have said, allowed to occupy a deserted palace in the line of defence. Happily, for now it is stated that thee very men who were to have been abandoned to their fate ' saved the situation.' The palace they occupied afforded a better vantage-ground against the Legation than the b.'sk-gcrs were able to find elsewhere, and their labor it was that built the barricades and dug the trenches. Unfortunately, however, the Europeans seem to have labored under the delusion that the Christians could get on very well without food, for even the Japanese journalists were horrified at their appearance. 'They are most lean aud wretched,' wrote one, 'and, having no possessions, have been reduced to live on weeds and grass. Some of them are living skeletons, several have already died of hunger, and it is to be feared that many of the rest will never recover from the effects of the terrible privations to which they have been subjected.' It is unfortunate, by the way, that the Japanese war correspondents — all of whom are now Christiana — are about the only Pressmen who have so far condescended to give us any particulars about these unfortunate people, who, whatever may be said against them, were at all events suffering for their faith. It may be possible indeed that the future historian of this war and of the causes that led to it will, when he comes to deal with these converts, have to refer to the despatches of the officers and newspapermen of Japan in preference to those of Europe. It is certainly to the credit of the Japanese military authorities that they protected these unfortunate sufferers on more than one occasion. The Christians were not in all cases, however, helpless Bufferers ; in three or four instances they defended themselves with magnificent courage, but never unless a European Catholic missionary led them. In one case a young Lazarist whose church is situated in a village outside Pekin got his flock to combine and to give such a good account of themselves, thanks to some old muskets and to the excellent military capacity of the good Father, that they were able to hold out for weeks until help arrived. THE DEFENCE OF THE CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL. But the great and classic instance of successful resistance by Chinese Christians under missionary guidance is undoubtedly the heroic defence of the Peitang or Catholic Cathedral at Pekin. Full particulars of that defence have not yet come to hand, but we already know enough to feel astonished at the bravery and the stubbornness of the defenders. There were in the church Bishop Favier, six; or seven priest->, some 20 Sisters, and some 2000 native converts, men, women, and children, with 30 French and 10 Italian guards, only 40 rifles in all. A Japanese newspaper correspondent who was in the British Legation, and whose diary of the siege has

recently appeared in the Tokyo Asatai, speaks in several places of heavy firing coming from the direction of the Cathedral, which wu completely cut off from the foreign quarter, being indeed in a different part of the city altogether, and separated from Legation street by the Forbidden and the Imperial cities. The firing sometimes broke out at night ; it was sometimes accompanied by the tremendous explosions of mines, and on one occasion the authorities in the British Legation learned that no fewer than 1500 Boxers had simultaneously attacked the building. No attempt was made to relieve the l*eioic Eioliop aiiJ hits flock, and any buch attempt would indeed have been madness, but I wonder if anyone enjoying the comparative safety of the LetfaLion li^.l liuie to think, aa these ominous sounds were wafted to his ear over the battlements of tha Imperial Palace, of the state of agony in which those unfortunate nuns must have been plunged, for, whatever Lady Mac Donald and her friends could do, they could not hasten their death by one second, or avoid a single drop of the cup of torture, ignominy, and shame that they would, surely have to drain to tin bitter dregs onoe they fell into the hands of their fiendish enemies. On June 23 the Japanese correspondent above alluded to notes that daring the night the roar of artillery from the direction of Peitang announced that the Cathedral was being vigorously attacked ; on the 26th there were rejoicingß in the Chinese camp, and it seemed as if the valiant defenders of the chnrch had fallen. 'We could not ascertain what the celebration was for,' says the diarist, ' bat we were deafened all day by the sound of innumerable fire crackers going off in the enemy's camp. ... A great noise of drums, gongs, and bugles was heard in the enemy's camp at midnight. What can it mean V It certainly looked as though the Cathedral had fallen, and it is almost miraculous indeed that it esoaped. It was defended, aa I have already Baid, by only 40 rifles, and when one of the riflemen fell his weapon was banded to a native convert. The enemy exploded five mines altogether under the besieged, in one of wbioh some 80 persons, principally women and children and five Italian guards, were killed. For three-quarters of an hour the Italian officer was buried in the debris thrown up by this explosion, but wu finally unearthed almost unhurt. After the relief another large mine was discovered under the church itself, whose explosion would have caused a tremendous loss of life. Electric conductors were found in the mine. The Peitang beat the Legations in one thing, in that the converts succeeded in capturing one of the enemy's gam with its ammunition and in making ammunition for it, under the direction of a missionary, with more than a tincture of chemistry, when the captured supply came to an end. For two months, as I have already stated, there was no communication between Peitang and the Legations, and neither knew how the other was faring. At the end of that time the rations at the Peitang were reduced to two ounces of rice a day per head, with a little horse meat for the fight* ing men, and if the relief had not come when it did the majority of the 2000 converts, the priests and the Sisters must have died of starvation — if they succeeded in escaping a worse fate. A FRUITFUL RETREAT. That two months' siege will leave an indelible mark on all who took part in it, on all of the besieged at least, for it undoubtedly brought them nearer to God. The priests saw in their flock qualities hitherto unsuspected ; the Chinese found the priests ready to lay down their lives for them, and not hastening like other missionaries to the shelter of their Legation ; the rough sailors and officers who, some of them, despised both missionaries and converts, had had their eyes opened in auch a way that they will never be shut again, and all had an opportunity for making the longest ' retreat ' they have ever made in their lives, or are ever likely to make — the longest retreat and by far the most fervent and fruitful. Everybody in the church belonged to the true Faith, and consequently everyone confessed and received the Blessed Sacrament regularly, besides assisting, of course, in the devotions that were carried on in the intervals of the fighting. Bishop Favier is a singularly eloquent and persuasive preacher, but it is doubtful if he will ever again sway the hearts of a congregation and carry them completely along with him as he did during those two dreadful months with death ever at the door and daily making incursions among them. The devotional exercises were interrupted somewhat at first by the impact of bullets against the inner walls of the church, but in course of time this trifling annoyance was as much disregarded as if it had been nothing more than the patter of rain on the window-panes. In spite of the fasting and the watching everyone was cheerful. Tha four walls of the church seemed to shelter a fervent community of early Christians, The nuns, who occupied, of course, a place apart from the others, were particularly noticeable for their care of the wounded, their forgetf ulness of themselves, and their helpfulness to all. They can tell better than anyone else why the allies entered Peking on the eve of the Assumption.