11*5 



CHINA. 



n.l be submitted to another tribunal. Some of 

 the power'* expressed dissent and others hesitated 

 to L'lve a detinite reply. For this reason the pro- 

 posail was \\ithdra\ui, and a despatch was sent 

 in "in that negotiations be expedited. The lang- 

 Tse \1eeruya, who had saved eentral and southern 

 China Mom In-ing earritd away by the antiforeign 

 movement and who hud braved the imperial dis- 

 pleasure in their efforts to bring the deluded court 

 to reason, objected strongly to some of the terms 

 demanded by tbe powers as destructive of the 

 independence' of China. Their protest intended 

 probably to influence the powers rather than 

 the court, had no effect. On dan. 13 the Chinese 

 tiivov*. Li- 1 lung Chang and Prince Ching, noti- 

 nd the foreign ministers that they had received 

 the imperial -auction to sign the protocols in the 

 form r quired bv the ministers, and on Jan. 14 they 

 Digued them. A few days later they sent a note to 

 the mini-ters inquiring as to the probable date of 

 the withdiawal of the allied troops, stating that 

 the officials marked out for punishment by the 

 n.ini>ters had been dealt with and had suffered 

 the severest penalties that the Chinese law pre- 

 scribes for the crimes they had committed. The 

 ministers replied that the signing of the agreement 

 must be followed by acts showing good faith, 

 and that it would be'useless for the Chinese Gov- 

 ernment to expect the removal of the troops until 

 China had conclusively proved her intentions. The 

 ministers were still 'discussing the punishments 

 that they would require the Chinese Government 

 to inflict upon the antiforeign princes and man- 

 darins. Death was prescribed for Prince Tuan, 

 \lvn. Tung-Fuh-Siang, and Duke Lan, and for the 

 high officials Ying-Nien, Chao-Shu-Chiao, and 

 Chili- Hsiu, as well as for Prince Chuang and Yu- 

 H.sien. Men who had the Chinese army at their 

 back and the court in their power were not likely 

 to submit to such a fate. The United States, 

 Japan, and Russia, recognizing the impracticable 

 nature of the demand, opposed the death penalty. 

 The Chinese Government at Singan-Fu proposed 

 to decapitate Yu-Hsien, to order Prince Chuang to 

 commit suicide, to exile Prince Tuan, Duke Lan, 

 and Ying-Nien to the frontiers, and to degrade 

 Chao-Shu-Chiao, Tung-Fuh-Siang, and posthu- 

 mously Li-Ping- Heng and Kang-Yi. The demand 

 of the ministers that capital punishment should 

 be inflicted on every one of the offending princes, 

 generals, and officials seemed to the Chinese mind 

 illogical, in no way a fulfilment of the paragraph 

 in the note requiring the punishment to fit the 

 crime; for if the severest known penalty were in- 

 flicted on the least offenders, there could be no 

 fitting punishment for those whose crimes were 

 graver. A supplementary list of officials to be 

 punished was furnished by the ministers. They 

 agreed to allow the Emperor to commute the death 

 sentence into banishment to Chinese Turkestan 

 in the ease of the imperial Princes Tuan and Lan. 

 Tung-Fuh-Siang; the commander-in-chief of the 

 Chinese army, could be dealt with when the Em- 

 peror had the power, as was secretly promised, and 

 the others, living and dead, must suffer the dis- 

 grace of capital punishment before the powers 

 would believe in the goo.l faith of China. The 

 death sentence was demanded for Chih-Liu and 

 Hsu-Cheng- Yu, who were prisoners in the hands 

 of the Japanese. For the members of the Tsung- 

 Li-Yamen and the other Pokin officials, Hsu-Yung- 

 [Isii-Ching-Cheng. Lien-Yuan, Li-Slian, and 

 Yuan-Chang, who were executed in the summer 

 posthumous honors were demanded. 



The humiliations and privations of exile made 

 the court willing to agree to terms that the 

 Viceroys Liu-Kun-Yi of Nankin, and Chang-Chih- 



Tunu' of Wuchang protested against; still the 

 Empress Dowager would not return to Pekin until 

 the European soldiers were withdrawn. The lead- 

 ing members of the Grand Council at Singan-Fu, 

 constituting the Central Government, were the 

 astute Yung-Lu, Lu-Chuan-Lin, believed to be a 

 reactionary, and Wan-Wen-Shao, who was cred- 

 ited with progressive ideas. The court agreed 

 to the punishment demanded for the guilty offi- 

 cials, and issued a bulletin announcing the- sen- 

 tences. The Chinese plenipotentiaries suggested 

 that the Board of Punishment was the proper 

 organ to give effect to the decrees. Edicts were - 

 issued complying with the other demands of the 

 joint note. Prince Chun, the Emperor's brother, 

 was commissioned to go to Berlin to express 

 China's regret for the murder of Baron von 

 Ketteler, the German minister. The powers them- 

 selves could decide about the legation guards and 

 fortifications, the military posts on the railroad, 

 and the razing of the Taku forts. China had ac- 

 cepted all the conditions of peace imposed by the 

 powers. The amount of the indemnities and the 

 manner of payment alone remained to be deter- 

 mined. The speedy compliance with the twelve de- 

 mands of the powers was probably hastened by a 

 threatened expedition to Singan-Fu that Count 

 von Waldersee was preparing, w T hich was cancelled 

 after the final submission of the court. The con- 

 version of the court at Singan-Fu to ideas of 

 progress was coincident with the resumption of 

 authority by the young Emperor, with the con- 

 currence of the Empress Dowager. 



The military experts who studied the question 

 of defensive works for the legations proposed an 

 international fortress, with walls, moats, siege- 

 guns, Maxims, barracks for 2,000 soldiers, and sup- 

 plies and munitions sufficient to withstand a siege 

 of three months. The area of the legation quarter 

 was vastly extended, enabling the representatives 

 of the powers to seize private property of great 

 value. No Chinese or employees of the Chinese 

 Government should be allowed to live within the 

 diplomatic area. The Italian legation took pos- 

 session of the Temple of Ancestors, which was 

 sacred to the Emperor's own use, and, in addition 

 to other property, laid claim to the residence and 

 garden of the Director-General of the Imperial 

 Maritime Customs, and the Austrian, French, and 

 German legations insisted on expropriating the 

 rest of the compound from which Sir Robert Hart 

 and his staff assisted effectually in the defense of 

 the legations during the siege. Sir Robert Hart 

 sent a letter of protest to the ministers. The lega- 

 tions of Russia, the United States, and Belgium 

 occupied the sites of other Government offices. 

 The Board of Public Works, the Board of Reve- 

 nue, and the Board of Ceremonials were taken by 

 the British and the Russians. The American le- 

 gation was the only one that volunteered to com- 

 pensate Chinese owners of the ground required 

 for the extension. The legation quarter has an 

 area of nearly one-half of a square mile. The lega- 

 tions began building barracks for the 1,750 sol- 

 diers to be permanently quartered within this 

 space. A glacis was built around the entire lega- 

 tion area. The American embrasures commanded 

 the main entrance to the imperial palace, the 

 German the Hatamen gate. The ministers having 

 ignored the plan for a uniform system of defense 

 that the allied generals recommended, the gov- 

 ernments worked independently. The ministers 

 avoided conspicuous fortifications lest they pro- 

 voke hostilities or prevent the court from ever 

 returning to Pekin. Against the advice of the 

 military engineers who designed a fortress, they 

 adopted the principle that the works should be 



