Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 9, 1891
Mr. Denby to Mr. Blaine.
Peking, September 21, 1891. (Received November 10.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose a clipping from the North China Daily News of the 11th instant, which gives the fullest account that I have seen of the recent riot at Ichang.
You will notice that at Ichang the first mission that was attacked was the small station of the American Episcopal Mission to which no wrong whatever was imputed. In this as in all other cases the mob did not distinguish between foreigners, but attacked all alike.
I have, etc.,
The Ichang riot—from an eyewitness and sufferer.
For several months a riot at Ichang has been feared by those having access to reliable sources of information, yet at 12:30 p.m., on Wednesday, 2d September, it came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, taking the most wary by surprise, and the programme was carried out with a thoroughness and dispatch which are altogether unprecedented. There was no indication of danger until the signal of attack was given, and in twenty minutes all was over. Nothing was left to chance; everything was carefully planned, and in no sense can the Ichang riot be attributed to popular excitement or the rash act of a European. The pretext for collecting a crowd was cunningly devised. On Tuesday, 1st September, a child was brought to the Roman Catholic convent, and the ordinary papers were duly signed making it over to the Sisters. The child was represented to be a girl (only girls were received at the convent), and when it was discovered to be a boy the circumstance caused some uneasiness. On Wednesday morning parties appeared at the convent declaring their child had been stolen and saying it was within. In due course the child was produced and delivered to the claimants. Meanwhile a crowd had collected, but nothing serious was suspected, although, as was proper under the circumstances, information was sent to the magistrate. But the ringleaders had also gone clamoring to the yamén, collecting the dregs of the city as they went along. Instead of shutting the yamên doors and keeping all parties concerned under restraint until the case was investigated, the magistrate, with his runners and bodyguard, proceeded to the convent, taking the crowd from the city along with him. The military commandant of the rank of chêntai was also on the scene with a large number of soldiers, and [Page 444] some show was made of protecting the convent. All at once a rush was made for the house in the adjoining compound, belonging to the American Episcopal Mission. The gate was smashed in, two trumpets were blown, and a man, beating his breast, shouted out: “Come on, brothers, slay the foreigners; I am willing to die for you.” The riot had commenced, yet up to the last moment so paltry did the whole thing appear, and so little sign was there of anything stirring going to happen, that the coolies whom the Rev. Mr. Sowerby had carrying earth in the compound never left off their work or went to see what was doing next door.
In came the rioters with a rush, one of the foremost men snatching a spade from a cooly and aiming a murderous blow at Mr. Sowerby, who managed to disarm this assailant and evade another. The coolies shouted at him to run for his life, and none too soon, for the mob was of the most desperate character and bent on murder from the very first. By jumping a fence and running for life, Mr. Sowerby was just able, to reach the consulate in an exhausted condition, with a sprained ankle, and exposed hatless to the midday sun. From the consulate Mr. Sowerby was able to get on board the Paohua with no further adventure.
To set fire to the American mission house was the work of an instant, and as soon as the signal of destruction was given yamên runners and soldiers fell back, nor did either military or civil mandarins give a single order to protect life or property. It is particularly to be noted that against Mr. Sowerby, whose house was the first to be burned, there was not even the semblance of a grudge. In less time than it takes to write it the torch was applied to the convent, the Sisters, seven in number and of various nationalities (French, German, and British), escaping as best they could down a lane to the river, escorted by Father Braun, a very powerful man and formerly an officer in the German army. To give them their due, officials and soldiers also escorted the Sisters. The mandarins seemed to receive some rough usage, the chêntai’s hat being knocked off, an indignity which the natives speak of with bated breath, and evidently consider of more gravity than anything else that has occurred. As soon as the steep bank of the river was reached the Sisters were thrown headlong over it by the very soldiers who had aided in their protection so far, an incident fortunately noticed onboard the Paohua, which was anchored opposite, and Capt. Lewis instantly launched a boat, which proceeded to the rescue and found the Sisters and Father Braun exposed to the full fury of a shower of missiles in a sampan, without oars, into which they had scrambled. The ship’s boat took the sampan in tow, and the whole party were soon in safety on board the Paohua, which had steam up to run down any boat loads of rioters who might attempt to board, and was defended by the repeating rifles of Capt. Lewis, Mr. Moore, and Mr. Grouleff. Right down to the river bank the orphans in the convent had clung to the Sisters, but here they were violently seized by the soldiers and kept back. It is suspected that a number of children must have been burned in the convent; one, unable to walk, could not have escaped. On reaching the Paohua the Sisters presented a pitiable sight, their long robes being covered with blood, and one has been so badly wounded that she is still unable to rise. Father Braun, who acted nobly throughout, shielding the Sisters with his own person, has received a very severe cut on the head, not to mention contusions and bruises all over his body.
From the convent the rioters made a rush to the river front and went tearing down the Bund, the ringleaders armed with pickaxes and knives, and the rest with such weapons as they could lay their hands on.
Down the lane at the end of the consulate and along the street in front of it they swept with the violence of a tropical storm, but not a finger was lifted against the consulate. The house, owned by a native—a mandarin’s secretary—in which the Rev. Mr. Deans and Dr. Pirie, of the Church of Scotland Mission, lived; Capt. Cain’s house (empty), the mat shed in front of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.’s godown, Mr. Creagh’s house, inhabited by Dr. Aldridge, Of the customs, and the Franciscan Mission, were fired simultaneously. The pickaxes made short work of the doors, and no time was wasted by the slightest attempt to loot. Mr. Cockburn was in a boat on the river within 50 yards of the scene and saw the whole thing done with a quickness and precision which leave no room to doubt that all had been planned beforehand, and that each man knew exactly what to do, a conclusion which is forced home by the fewness of the numbers of the active rioters, not over half a hundred at the outside, and the strange coincidence that no attempt whatever was made to burn Mr. Cockburn’s own house, which adjoins Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.’s on the one side and Dr. Aldridge’s on the other.
This is what took place at one house, and it is substantially what took place at all: As soon as the door was staved in the boy was seized and at the risk of his life asked to point out where the foreigner kept his silver. “He keeps none, but changes Hankow checks at the native cash shops.” “Then where is your kerosene tin?” and the house was blazing in an instant.
The plans were well laid, and, what is far more difficult to secure, the ringleaders kept perfect command all through the proceedings. As has been remarked, Messrs. Jardine, [Page 445] Matheson & Co.’s property was fired and the mat shed burned down. On this their Chinese agent and compradores fell on their knees and implored the rioters not to burn the godown, as it contained only goods belonging to natives. The request was granted on condition that the goods were removed within three days, when the godown would be burned. A petition was also made that Mr. Cockburn’s house might be spared, as it adjoined the godown, and the one would set fire to the other. A mandarin was also in Mr. Cockburn’s compound vociferating, “Do not burn Mr. Coekburn’s house; you all know him; he has been here over ten years and does works of charity (hao-sz); take anything you want, but do not burn his house.” Some sinologue may be able to explain whether it would be more honorable to have one’s goods stolen than burned as being too vile for a Chinaman to handle. One fact is clear; the original plan was to loot and not to burn the house of the Rev. Mr. Coekburn, of the Church of Scotland Mission. With the celerity with which all others were fired by the ringleaders, who carried kerosene and gunpowder along with them, all entreaties to spare it came too late.
As for the consulate, a native building belonging to Mr. Little, it was never attacked, and the consul remained inside in perfect security. No pretense of protecting it by soldiers was made until all was over.
There is a shrewd suspicion that the ringleaders may have taken their cue from a remark of his excellency the viceroy of the province, that those murdered at Wusueh were nobody in particular, and concluded that so long as they kept their hands off officials the punishment meted out would not be grievous.
True to the traditions of the service, the customs staff stood to arms, but had only to present their bayonets to keep back stragglers, for here also the rioters made no real attack. Yet they made it sufficiently clear that their favors were distributed to all foreigners with strict impartiality. The land bought for the site of a new custom-house was taken possession of, the fine tennis lawn destroyed, and such other mischief done as the place afforded opportunity.
At the new consulate, in course of building, the strong gate of the compound was broken to pieces, the teakwood doors and window frames torn from their positions, the place becoming a thorough wreck. All the wood and builders’ materials and quantities of the very bricks were carried off, and at the date of writing the public are freely helping themselves to whatever remains.
A freak of the riot which would tax even the perfervid imagination of the author of Defensio Populii to explain is that the extensive mission premises of the Church of Scotland, within the city, remain intact. Up to the very moment of the riot, male and female schools, dispensary, hospital, not to speak of that terrible red rag preaching in the church both forenoon and afternoon, were carried on.
Amidst all the ferment the very existence of the mission was overlooked alike by mandarins and rowdies. The only people who manifested the slightest interest were the patients, who came in nearly the usual number and took no pains to conceal their annoyance that Dr. Pirie was prevented from attending to them in the ordinary way. Not till Friday did the mission receive any attention. Long before that time the Bund was covered with the tents of soldiers guarding the blackened and battered ruins. Already some twenty scholars, children of heathen parents, had resumed their places in the school; but casual remarks were now heard on the street that the premises had been left without official recognition or protection.
The schoolmaster now went to the yamên and stated that when all the officials had gone out of the city and proved themselves unable to prevent a riot, he had remained at his post and succeeded in preventing any mischief being done to property within the city walls; but the time had come when he must either be told to leave, in which case the property would be left to its fate, or something must be done to show publicly that the place was protected. A ray of hope dawned on the magistrate at once. He could at least report all foreign property within the city to be safe and sound. Without delay four runners were sent by the chihsien, and a like number by the chifu, with strict injunctions to arrest anyone causing the slightest annoyance. The American Episcopal Mission in a native house within the city, the Roman Catholic Mission within the city, also in a native house, and the Church of Scotland Mission station outside the north gate are all of them safe. No protection was given, but everything was as quiet as on ordinary occasions. If Christianity be offensive to the Chinese and mission work felt to be a grievance, it is passing strange that the very centers of proselyting should not have a single stone cast at them. What happened at Ichang should convince all parties that it is not this or that individual class of Europeans that is aimed at, but all Europeans, without distinction of nationality or occupation.
But it is time to tell how it fared with the residents about whom you have not already heard. They were Mrs. Roberts and daughter, of Shanghai, visitors to Ichang; Mr. and Mrs. Coekburn and five children, Dr. Pirie, Mr. Deans, and Mr. McNair, of the C. I. M., from Shasi. After a variety of adventures and remarkable concomitances of favorable incidents, all reached the steamship Paohua in safety, for which a debt of [Page 446] gratitude is due to Capt. Lewis, the ship’s boat in command of Mr. Grouleff having not only rescued the Roman Catholic missionaries, but also picked up Dr. Pirie, Mr. Deans, and Mr. McNair, similarly exposed to a shower of stones, in a sampan with a broken oar.
Mr. Cockburn brought off Mrs. Roberts and daughter with his own family to the steamer, and immediately returned to see if he could carry from his house a few things of special value that can never be replaced. He was too late, but succeeded in getting an excellent view of what actually took place. Seeing numbers of soldiers mixed in the crowd, he insisted on the boatman putting him ashore, feeling confident he would be protected from personal violence. The reply he got was, “Soldiers will not strike soldiers.” “That one, and that one, and that one,” pointing to men armed with pickaxes and foremost in the riot, “these are all soldiers with their coats of.” Seeing how matters stood, and with stones coming from the shore fast an thick, there was no help for it but to return to the steamer by a long detour.
Were anything more needed to show the utter helplessness and incompetence of the mandarins the proof is not far to seek. On Wednesday afternoon two of the customs staff walked down to Mr. Cockburn’s house, and amidst the general wreck particularly noticed that the carpet was still on the sitting-room floor, whilst the compound was already occupied by a lieutenant and company of soldiers, who, to make doubly sure that no stragglers should enter, had barricaded the door and pitched a tent across it. Mr. Cockburn and Dr. Pirie went to the house on Thursday and found the carpet gone, the floor bearing evidence of the tacks having been carefully extracted. The inevitable conclusion is that the carpet was appropriated by the lieutenant himself. During the whole time the Bund has been full of mandarins on horseback and in chairs rubbing shoulders with people openly carrying away plunder of every description, from half-burnt wood to a silver tea service, which was observed to be taken to a house next door to a yamên. By Friday everything worth taking was gone, and then the official wrath burst forth against the poor people who came to get a little firewood cheaply.
Crowds of those caught with burdens of charred wood have been lodged in the yamên, but the mandarins durst not lay a finger on any of the real criminals. They are no doubt prepared to inflict any punishment demanded by foreign powers on the miserable creatures they have arrested, the very utmost limit of whose offenses does not exceed petty theft. More than all this, there was an open attempt to commence the riot ten days before it actually occurred. At that date three Chinese entered the Scotch Mission by the back door, loudly demanding to be shown the place where the foreigners picked out children’s eyes. Making their way to the church, in which a native helper was preaching, they commenced tossing the seats about and shouting abuse which need not be repeated. Then seeing the various proclamations which have been issued in reference to the riots on the lower river posted up in front of the church, one of them went up to them and shouted out, “These too are fabrications of the foreigners; not one of them is genuine, nor bears the proper seals; I am an official myself and know the seals to be forgeries; see, here is a proper seal,” pulling something from his pocket. By this time a crowd had collected; but, contrary to expectation, the people of the neighborhood, among them a military graduate, stoutly interfered, saying they all knew what was done in the mission and they would permit no disturbance to be raised by such slanderous statements. Then, taking him by the shoulders, they forcibly ejected him and saw him in safety to his home. What he said was not all false. He actually turned out to be a military officer named Wang, of the rank of wai-wei. Through the consul, who personally examined the witnesses, the chêntai was informed of what had taken place, and a reply was received that Mr. Wang had got a black mark put against his name, three of them being enough to ruin a man. After what has transpired, the sooner the other two black marks are added the better.
The bearing Ichang has on the rest of China can not be appreciated without knowing that the chêntai is an official of exceptional honesty and energy, who has hitherto been regarded with good reason as very friendly to Europeans. For China his soldiers are in an excellent state of discipline. But he is a Hunan man, and his soldiers are from Hunan. Hunan people in the employment of officials are at the bottom of everything. Of the chihsien not much need be said. He was on the Chinese commission as to steamers running to Chungking, and was looked up to as a sort of leader, having had experience in dealing with foreigners at some former period of his career. Such a name did he make for himself when the steamship Killing was stopped from going to Chungking that he is now made the ruler of Ichang.
There is but one recommendation to make as to settlement. Let the punishment fall on the officials, the only culpable if not criminal parties that can be found. Let there be no demand for the cutting off of heads; the creatures taken into custody on Friday are deserving only of our pity.
The writer can not conclude without a public acknowldgement to Capt. Lewis, [Page 447] Mr. Moore, and Mr. Grouleff, of the steamship Paohua, the only parties who could render assistance to those in danger. The customs staff could and would have made short work of the rioters before they had gone very far; the most courageous of Hunan braves respect a foreigner with a rifle. Greatly to their own chagrin, they had no option but to stay on the customs premises. The kindness shown to the fugitives on board the steamship Paohua was unbounded. Rooms, wardrobes—everything was placed at their service and pressed on their acceptance, those in command sleeping on deck. Those who were at Ichang on the 2d of September have no higher hope than to be near practical seamen in the next trouble they may get into.
It only remains to be stated that those in the riot simply escaped in the clothes they stood in. They saved absolutely nothing, and the houses fired were burned to the ground. Mr. Cockburn’s house is as completely wrecked and ruined as if it had been burned with the rest. Without a single hitch the rioters carried out their plans with thoroughness with the single exception of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.’s godown, where a compromise was effected. Fortunately there has been no loss of life, but infuriated men brandishing knives mean murder, and had the Paohua not been in port there would have been a sadder tale to tell.
Another correspondent, under date 4th instant, says that the mob, after burning down Capt. Cain’s house, pulled down the walls and uprooted the trees in the compound. The foreigners, to the number of nine, were under arms to protect the consulate and customs. They each received 20 rounds of ball ammunition, but did not need to fire their guns, for their bayonets were sufficient to keep the mob back. The Paohua was kept back until the arrival of the Tehhsing. The people in the city were still very excited on the 4th, but otherwise things were quiet. The mandarins, however, were quite unable to cope with the rioters. None of the C. N. Co.’s property was burnt.
From another letter we learn that the mob on the 3d threatened to blow up the custom-house with bags of gunpowder, but fortunately they did not carry out their threat.
Information received by Her Britannic Majesty’s office of works at Shanghai confirms the news of the destruction of the new British consulate at Ichang. At the time of the outbreak the walls, which were of brick, had reached a height of about 4 feet from the ground, and the scaffolding had just been fixed. The rioters tore down the scaffolding and all the woodwork and carried it off, besides knocking down all the brickwork they had time to attend to. All the materials for the building had been sent from Shanghai, a process which will now have to be repeated at Ichang’s expense.
Correspondence—Wusueh and Ichang..
To the Editor of the North China Daily News.
Sir: In the September number of the Messenger, just to hand, there is an account given of the Wusueh riots, in which the following sentences occur: The crowd were about to proceed to further roughness, when luckily the erh-fu arrived in the nick of time with his guard and rescued the ladies and the children they had with them. Great credit is due to the erh-fu for his humane and resolute conduct on this occasion. He took and sheltered the refugees in his yamên, where they had the happiness of being reunited to some of their children who had been missing during the progress of the whole riot.”
As the above account of the erh-fu’s conduct is quite misleading, and as it is very important that all the information published at this time on matters connected with these riots should be thorougly trustworthy, I shall feel obliged if you will find space for the insertion of the following statement of facts in the columns of the Daily News. Being based upon information received direct from C. T. Gardner, esq., Her Britannic Majesty’s consul at Hankow, the statement may be regarded as perfectly reliable. At Wusueh there are three Chinese officials. The head official is called the erh-fu; the other two are called lungpingsze and the makowsze. On the evening of the 5th of June Mr. Green was on duty by the river with Mr. Argent, who was waiting for the steamer to return to Hankow in it. The ladies were quietly sitting at home. At 7 p.m. a mob broke into the ladies houses and set fire to them. The ladies had just time to get their children and try to fly, accompanied by two native servants and some native Christians. The streets were crowded with men, who struck the ladies and children with poles. Some of the mob only [Page 448] pretended to strike, and really warded off blows. Two of the ladies, Mrs. Boden and Mrs. Warren, got separated from the other and went for protection to the official residence of the makowsze, who, in spite of the entreaties of his own women folks, turned them out to the fury of the mob. Afterwards these two ladies and two children got into the mat hut of a market gardener, who allowed them to lie on his wife’s bed, and there they remained, wounded and sore, but safe. The other lady, Mrs. Protheroe, also managed to get into the official residence of the makowsze, but he turned her out in the same brutal way he had turned out the other ladies.
The Christians appealed again and again to the erh-fu for men to quell the riot, but he refused. The lungpingsze, on the other hand, was doing his duty. He applied three times to the erh-fu for men, and the erh-fu each time refused. The solitary lady, Mrs. Protheroe, was still exposed to the fury of the mob, when a man said: “I will have her ring,” and, seizing her by the hand, dragged her through the mob to the erh-fu’s residence. Here he turned suddenly round, faced the mob, and threatened it that if they touched the lady they should be punished. The erh-fu kept Mrs. Protheroe at his door for more than fifteen minutes, and was only persuaded by the threats of Chinese friendly to us to open it and give her shelter. He was also induced by the same threats and the earnest entreaties of Mrs. Protheroe to send and search for the other ladies and the children. Not till Mrs. Protheroe was admitted was any attempt made to discover, help, or rescue the other ladies. But they were actually rescued by the Christians, with the help of a few of the more well-disposed heathen. One child was being carried by a Christian. The Christian was knocked down; the baby, however, was caught up by a native woman (a non-Christian), who faced the fury of the mob for three-quarters of an hour and declared that they should rather kill her than the innocent child. One child was hidden in a cellar by one of the missionary’s servants. This boy, a lad of 17, went to warn Mr. Argent and Mr. Green of what was happening. He met Messrs. Green and Argent, who, seeing the conflagration, were coming to put it out. He begged them to turn back, but of course they would not. The mob was very violent, and Argent tried to escape by running into a shoemaker’s shop. The shoemaker cried out, “Kill him outside and not in my shop.” Argent was pushed outside the shop and brutally killed, in spite of the efforts of the Chinese boy to save him, by having his brains dashed out with huge blocks of stone used as hammers. Green escaped into a pond, where he remained two hours, but at last came out under the promise that his life would be spared. When he came out he was hacked in pieces by swords.
The Christians found and took the other two ladies to the erh-fu’s residence, whence in a short time they were taken on board the steamer and brought to Hankow.
Such is the true story of this riot. The lungpingsze did his duty well; the Christians acted splendidly, and some of the non-Christian natives showed great kindness. But what about the erh-fu? Mr. Bramfitt, one of the missionaries of the Wesley an Mission, charged the erh-fu with culpable neglect, and in open court sustained the charge. To speak of this official as worthy of great credit, and of his conduct as humane and resolute, is simply ludicrous. I hear that this heartless man has been cashiered. Why was he not deprived of his button? Two men have been beheaded and ten more have been variously sentenced. The sum of $25,000 as indemnity has been sent in, and $40,000 has been offered as solatium to the mothers of the deceased. All this is very well in its way, but it was a great mistake to allow the erh-fu to escape so lightly. Of all the sinners in that riot there was no greater than he, and if one man more than another deserved to be made an example of, surely the erh-fu was that man.
The steamer of to-day will bring you full account of the riot in Ichang. It has been supposed by many that these riots are purely antimissionary. The Ichang riot will, it is hoped, convince all such that they are antiforeign.
The aim of the rioters was to destroy all foreign property, whether mission or otherwise, and to drive all foreigners from the place. It has also been maintained that these riots are to be ascribed to the hatred of the missionaries among the masses of the Chinese people. So far as the Ichang riot is concerned, it can be proved that the masses of the people had very little to do with it, and that it was got up by the soldiers under whose protection the foreigners are supposed to be. The intercourse of the missionaries with the people of Ichang has been of the most friendly nature. In the beginning of last year I received an invitation from Mr. Cockburn to come and assist at the opening of his new chapel at Ichang. Having had something to do with the establishing of the mission twelve years previously, and having taken a deep interest in its work and welfare ever since, I felt it to be both a duty and privilege to comply with my friend’s request. Whilst walking with Mr. Cockburn in the city and the surrounding country I could not but observe how well he was known to the people as a teacher and friend. For some time he had been the doctor as well as the clergyman of the place, and both the natives and the foreigners [Page 449] seemed to depend upon him for physical healing as well as spiritual instruction. The kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Cockburn seemed to have won many hearts among the natives, and wherever we went we were treated with the greatest respect and friendliness. My first visit to Ichang was in 1868, before any missionary had settled down in the place. The change for the better in the bearing of the people toward me was very marked, and I could not but ascribe it in a large measure to the presence and work of the missionaries in their midst.
We have been brought face to face with another great crisis in China. I believe that there is a deeply laid plot which has for its aim the immediate expulsion of all foreigners from the Yangtse Valley, and ultimately from all China. “Can you control your own people?” asks the British Government. The yamên has given its answer to that question, and so has Ichang. It behooves the foreign powers to consider carefully and well the Ichang answer, for it is significant. It is reported that a grand conclave was held in Wuchang last week, at the head of which were many influential Hunanese. The resolution come to was that no foreigners are to be allowed to dwell in the provinces of Hunan, Hupeh, and Kiangsi. This morning two anonymous placards were found in the compounds of the Roman Catholic and London missions in the city of Wuchang, warning the foreigners of the coming storm. Hunan is bent upon mischief. How to deal with it I can not tell; but I am anxious to call attention to the fact, and that for the sake of the people of China as well as for our own sake.
I am, etc.,