Tensions Among Foreign Troops in China
The situation of the forces of the powers in China is much like that of an open powder magazine with fires burning all around. The troops which marched together to the relief of the foreigners in Peking are now making demonstrations of hatred toward each other. English and Russian troops face each other over a little railroad embankment, each disputing the right of the other to be in the vicinity. In Tientsin the French and English soldiers have clashed on several occasions. French soldiers have run thru the English concessions crying, “Down with the English.” On this raid they attacked an English captain, who defended himself to the best of his ability until the arrival of a squad of Indian troops. The English troops then drove all the French soldiers out of the concession, and posted guards to prevent their re-entering it. Some of the English papers at home have been advocating war with Russia; but these have been warned by English officials that England is now in no position to make war on Russia. One of these officials declares that, “It is useless for our newspapers to use provocative language. They forget that we have a great army in South Africa, and that we have no other army, or the making of one, elsewhere. It is impossible to go to war with Russia. We must admit that this is no juncture to risk fresh quarrels. Our armaments are inefficient, and our fleet in the far East is so weak that its position would be perilous. It is a painful process for a nation to have its face slapped; but until the country compels the government to put our house in order, it is a humiliation unto which we must accustom ourselves.” If England’s army were not now tied up in South Africa, it is quite likely that the powers would have been at war before this. Russia is determined to control North China, and it certainly seems at the present time that there will be no combination of powers sufficiently vigorous to prevent her in this. The division of China seems inevitable.