Manchu Boxer Chief
THE murder of the Church of England missionary, Brookes, in Chinanfu prefecture, Shantung province, by the Boxers, was the beginning of the explosion. On January 4, 1900, I cabled home the occurrence of the murder. On January 5 I cabled that the Americans in Taianfu, two days’ journey by cart south of the scene of the murder, were in danger, and that the United States minister had requested that they be protected; also that the Empress Dowager had expressed to Sir Claude MacDonald, through the tsung-li-yamen, her horror at the deed, and from thenceforth, under the respective dates given below, I sent cables recording the Boxer progress.
January 13. Christians in Shantung are being constantly pillaged by marauding parties of Boxers. The Taianfu district is especially dangerous, as the prefect will not allow them to be interfered with. Dr. Smith, of Pang Chuang, in northern Shantung, has also written and telegraphed the United States legation that matters in his district are in the same condition. Christians murdered, chapels burned and looted, and no redress obtainable from the officials.
January 15. An imperial edict was issued yesterday which really commends the Boxers, and is sure to cause trouble. Upon Baron von Ketteler representing this to the tsung-li-yamen he was given no satisfactory answer to account for it.
January 24. Boxer movement is rapidly spreading, and the situation fills many with alarm. Prince Tuan’s son has been chosen as the successor to the Emperor, which is an unfavorable omen.
January 25. An edict has been promulgated apparently from the Emperor, but really from the Empress Dowager, stating that, because of his childless condition and infirm health, he has decided for the good of the state to appoint Pu Chun, son of Prince Tuan, as his successor.
February 5. Although the Boxer movement continues to increase in the northern provinces, Peking remains quiet.
February 10. The anti-foreign crusade is proceeding apace. Jung Lu, Hsu Tung and Kang Yi have assumed great power, and are constantly with the Empress. The Boer successes in the Transvaal are being used to show the masses that a very little country can defy a big government if only the hearts of the people are in the struggle. British prestige here declining rapidly as a consequence. A Boxer mob has attacked the Germans building the railway in Shantung, and driven the foreigners away from their work. As Baron von Ketteler insists upon their going on with the work, the tsung-li-yamen finds it difficult to please both the throne and the foreigners.
February 12. A letter received from a Presbyterian missionary in Chinanfu states that over seventy families of Christians have been mobbed and looted in his district, and that they can obtain no redress from the local officials, and that the Boxers, knowing this, are rapidly increasing and growing bolder.
February 15. Imperial edict orders the suspension of any native papers showing reform tendency, and the editors to be imprisoned.