Same date, 5 p.m. The messenger sent yesterday returned with four others, who waited for him at the bridge. He brought a letter from Jung Lu to Sir Claude MacDonald, and a telegram from Washington to Mr. Conger. The letter to Sir Claude contained nothing of any importance. The telegram, Mr. Conger recognized as being in the State Department cipher, but could not determine its meaning, as it had evidently been tampered with in some way by the Chinese. So the messenger was sent back with a request that the full original telegram be sent.
July 17. The messenger returned again bringing a telegram from Wu Ting Fang, the Chinese minister at Washington, enclosing one from the Secretary of State. This read: “Communicate tidings to bearer.” To this the minister sent in reply: “One month in the British legation under shot and shell. Will all be massacred unless help comes soon.”
One of Jung Lu’s soldiers came in the morning and gave himself up at the German legation, and asked for some medicine for a wound in the ear. He said that Jung Lu had ordered the soldiers to stop firing, but to hold their positions, and that he was very desirous that the foreigners should be protected.
Not a shot has been fired since early morning. This is probably due to a fear that the foreign troops are near, and the government wishes to protect itself by saying they were unable to control the Boxers and the Kansu soldiers. Several other Chinese soldiers gave themselves up as prisoners at the different legations, though with what purpose no one can say.
GENERAL MA YU KUN
Major-General under Sung Ching; also engaged in the battle of Tientsin with the allied international armies.
July 18. As Jung Lu had expressed a willingness to assist the foreigners, a messenger was sent to him requesting that supplies of fresh vegetables, eggs, meat, etc., might be sent to the legation for the women and children. This was promised, and watermelons and peaches have already been sent to the Japanese in the Su Wang Fu and to the Americans on the wall. The soldiers on the wall go on each other’s barriers and chat in the most friendly manner. There are great numbers of Boxers in the city, especially in the south city, but the troops are no longer in league with these.
A messenger sent out by the Japanese minister on the 30th ult. returned to-day from Tientsin, bringing word that a mixed force of 33,300 would start from there for the relief of Peking about the 20th inst. The force is to consist of 24,000 Japanese, 4,000 Russian, 2,000 British, 1,500 American, 1,500 French, and 300 German troops.