Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1900 — ENVOYS ARE FREED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ENVOYS ARE FREED.

ALLIED ARMY ENTERS PEKIN WITHOUT A FIGHT. ■ A American Troops Under General Chaffee in the Lead —News of the Liberation of the Besieged Ministers and Their Friends.

Out of the gloom of the recent acute crisis came the cheering information from many sources Friday, unofficial, but so circumstantial and positive as to be generally credited in official quarters, that the allied armies had reached Pekin and that the legationecs had been relieved. This information came from press dispatches from London, Shanghai and Berlin, and they were eagerly scanned by the officials in Washington. The dispatch from Berlin conveying the communication from the German consul at Shanghai that the allies had entered Pekin and liberated all the foreigners was credited in official circles. The announcement was joyfully received in Washington. President McKinley was shown the dispatches from abroad, and the conviction was generally expressed that the crisis in China is now over. Information from Shanghai via Berlin states that Pekin was entered by the allied forces on Aug. 15 without opposi-

tion, and that American troops under Gen. Chaffee were the first to enter the Chinese capital. The Japanese, British and Russians followed in the order named. The allies began operations on the walls of Pekin in the morning. A flag of truee was hoist-

ed on the wall, and in the afternoon the Americans, under their general, marched into the city. The collapse -of Chinese resistance is explained in dispatches from Shanghai as being due to'the failure of the Chinese to flood the. country below Tung-Chow. The earthworks connected with the dam at the Pei-Ho were unfinished, and the canal at Tung-Chow was full of water, facilitating boat transports when the allies arrived there. Signals between the allies and the legationers holding part of the wall at Pekin were exchanged during the morning of Aug. 15. It was reported that Yuan-Shi-Kai’s troops had gone to Shen-Si to protect the empress, who, according to reports, with Tuan, the imperial household and the bulk of the army and Boxers, left Pekin Aug. 7 for HsiauFu. A dispatch received from the German consul at Shanghai was given out by the Berlin foreign office. It stated that the allies entered Pekin without fighting, the legations were relieved and the foreigners liberated. With the legationers relieved, the gravest crisis is removed. But there remains many momentous questions to be deter-

mined. It appears to be accepted that some of th* powers will keep their military forces in China, at least until all questions growing out of the crisis are settled. This is expected to involve questions, not only of money indemnity, but of territorial extension on the part of some of the. European parties to the controversy. It is not believed that the United States will be a party to any such territorial controversy, as the declaration of Secretary Hay, made at the beginning of the trouble, forecasted the purpose of this Government to seek to preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity. There have been many changes in the situation since that declaration was made, and yet it seems to clearly indicate that if territorial extension is one of the sequels t» the crisis, the United States will not be a party to it. Chinese officials are apprehensive that a long period of diplomatic exchange may follow the crisis, covering six months or a year, during which Germany, France and some of* the other powers will keep armies on Chinese soil to re-enforce extreme demands of money .'and territorial indemnity. With China’s present impotent condition there appears to be no issue out of this long struggle but her eventually yielding to the various demands.

GEN. CHAFFEE.

TAKU TO PEKIN.