Tt would also appear that if people would only keep quiet and leave him alone, he is atill perfectly confident of his ability to conduct the case to a satisfactory issue. That no foreigner should have been allowed by the Chinese authorities to have any connection with the case in any eapacity; that Li Kia-chung, the alleged organiser of the riot, should have been invited to a seat on' the commission of enquiry; that he Macheng district magistrate, the responsible official who culpably permitted the riot to take place, should have had the chief control of the enquiry that the friendly natives should have been so severely punished while those accused romain undiscovered—of the five persons named in Dr, John's statement only one, Li Kia-chung, has been found, and hin they ovuld not plead ignorance of, as hie was already on the bench when denounced—that the witnesses should have been tortured or cajoled into repeating the official version of the riot, and fresh witnesses ordered to be handed over for the same treatment by Mr. Bock; that, in a word, aiter the lapse of more than two months since the riot there should have been no proper enquiry held, no real effort made to secure the guilty, but only an attempt to yet up such a story as will justify the! mandoring and condemn the missionaries, may all of them be things which in Mr. Bock's estimation are conducive to the interests of the United Kingdoms in China, but it is very hard to a foreigner" to see how.
MR, BOCK CONTRADICTED, One is exceedingly sorry to seo that he} still persists in throwing the blame for the riot on the murdered men. It was after his fw when in ud farther fewnkly told the Swedish Mission that he had reported to his government, on the authority of " gentleman in Shanghai, that they, the members of that omission in Wuchang, were ignorant and violent men, rash and unwise in their actions, and incapable of carrying on work peaceably amongst the Chinese, This brought forth the following testimonies from the senior missionaries of other Societies at this centre. We the undersigned members of the London Mission, have read the above statements with surprise and regret, and regard them calumnious and utterly unjustitixble. We were resident in Hankow when the Swedish Mission was established in Central China, and from that time have recognised that its members were men whose education, character, and Christian spirit alike marked them out'as eminently fitted fur successful work among the Chinese people. From reliable information, coming through various channels fro" Sungpu, we are able to state that Messrs. Wikholm' and Johansson had actually succeeded in winning the eonfidence of the respectable residents of the town, and that their death was not due te any violent or unchristian conduct on their part, but solely to the unreasoning hatred of foreigners prevalent among the ignorant country people, which was stirred up and directed by certain lawless men of the neighbourhood. (Signed), Griffith John Arnold Foster; Thomas Gillison; Charles George Sparham. Hankow, 17th Jaly, 1893." " Personal acquaintance with the members of the Swedish Mission in Wuchang causes the greatest astonishment that charges ssu grossly unjust should have been preferred against them, and we heartily endorse the testimony of our brethren of the London Mission in regard to the esteem in which we hold them. Signed, David Hill; T. EH. North; W. A. Cornaby K. Hill. English Wesleyan Mission, 17h July, 1893.
Next the Shanghai gentleman whose authority Mr. Bock professed ko these statements repudiated them most emphatically in a letter as follows "Tam greatly surprised and shocked that Tam reported ts ave snd that the members i Wa-chang are and unwise in their actions and incapable of on work peacefully amongst the I absolutely deny having made y such charges "guinst the Swedish Missionary Society to" Consul-General Buck, Thave only once spoken to him in my life, ud that interview Insted less than ten minutes. I am exceedingly grieved that such words and conclusions should be attributed to me, and am very thankful to have the opportunity of repudiating them, Shanghai, 24th July, 189:
BUT ME DOES NOT MIND, Te was fo communications were put hands he would, even if he could not b himself to admit that he had bee taken, be more careful as to what statements he committed himself to with regard to the men concerned in this exse, in future. Such is the effect they would have had on most men, but on Me, Bock their influence was nil, He airily replied that if it was not Tom that told him then it must have been Dick or Harry, and keeps on acting og if it all had been true, As a rule it is better not to bring matters such as these before the public, and the fact that the affair is now six weeks old shows that there as been no eagerness to bring it forward, Ie is only done now in order to demonstrate that if ever the truth to be known—and it is of the highest importance to all foreign interests in China that it should be ascertained—if ever the missionaries, if the mandoring, and the people concerned in it, are to have justice, then it must be by means ut some other en quiry, and some other findings than those for which the world is indebted to Consul. General Bock, RUMOURED TEKMS OF SETTLEMENT, Everything here during the last fortnight has become wonderfully quiet. Te is generally supposed that our big officials have had w hint from Peking that they have gone far enough—thanks to the action of the ere, The students and their attendants are now assembling in their teus of thousands for the great exer ation, Jare perfectly well-behaved. autho: titien have backed down in the ater of the C. I. M. house; the landlord has been set at liberty, and the men of the Alliance Mission still Occup; One of the Sungpa refugees has got caught. When the dem was made for them he retired to place he knew of in the moun Huungan on the borders of Ho lonely spot 150 miles away, on the high way to nowhere—the result that he is now in Huangchow gaol. A reward of Tis, 10 for any information which might lead to his capture soon landed him in the hands of the rainners. It is no easy matter to hide in China, if the mandarins really want their man, 'All the others are safe in the Concession, although the Macheng magistrate sent' a band of men to Hankow we seiz+ them—he cannot feel safe till they are in his hands, The Taotai sent them back again empty-handed. There is ing dying in the Sungpa case. Ya jen who is said to have charge of it now, arrived here last Friday, after a ten days! stay in Shanghai ow route. The Chinese report that while there he arranged' the basis of two heads and Tls. 3,000; the latter to be for the damage done to property, and in addition to the "charity money" which the Viceroy might give. "He is pected to leave this week for Sungpu and Huangehow to carry through his side of the understand is is given on good authority, but how far it is true I eunot say. Probably this is the neg station referred to by Mr. Bock which he does not tind it con venient to inform the missionaries of, 6ch September.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.