[Gutenberg 17003] • Indiscreet Letters From Peking / Being the Notes of an Eye-Witness, Which Set Forth in Some Detail, from Day to Day, the Real Story of the Siege and Sack of a Distressed Capital in 1900—The Year of Great Tribulation

Excerpt from Indiscreet Letters From Peking: Being the Notes of an Eye-Witness, Which Set Forth in Some Detail, From Day to Day, the Real Story of the Siege and Sack of a Distressed Capital in 1900 the Year of Great Tribulation: *The publication of these letters, dealing with the startling events which took place in Peking during the summer and autumn of 1900, at this late date may be justified on a number of counts. In the first place, there can be but little doubt that an exact narrative from the pen of an eye-witness who saw everything, and knew exactly what was going on from day to day, and even from hour to hour, in the diplomatic world of the Chinese capital during the deplorable times when the dread Boxer movement overcast everything so much that even in England the South African War was temporarily forgotten, is of intense human interest, showing most clearly as it does, perhaps for the first time in realistic fashion, the extraordinary bouleversement which overcame every one; the unpreparedness and the panic when there was really ample warning; the rivalry of the warring Legations even when they were almost in extremis, and the curious course of the whole siege itself owing to the division of counsels among the Chinese - this last a state of affairs which alone saved every one from a shameful death. In the second place, this account may dispel many false ideas which still obtain in Europe and America regarding the position of various Powers in China - ideas based on data which have long been declared of no value by those competent to judge.*