To the Hd.tor of the Sir—A feeling of indignation and amazement has pervade.. this © -..0A¥ since the announcement that no clasp for Tientsin will be given with the China Medal. After all allowance has been made for that regrettable jealousy which not infre~ quently exhibits itself between the services, it is difficult to realise that such ignor ance exists at home as to the real bearings of the situation which two years ago focussed the interests of Europe. Either, however, such ignorance of events in Tientsin does exist, or the gallant men who spilled their blood in the defence of the Settlements and capture of Tientsin j City have been deliberately sacrificed to the irregularities of influence by which one man's report is accepted, and another's overlooked. The clasps for Taku and Peking have apparently been granted because the one was allowably a naval and the other a military achievement, whereas Tientsin's month-long battle was one of those combinations of sport which possi" ily afforded opportunities for technical dispute. With the arrival of the Indian forces, the whole situation adopted a different tone; military organisation stepped in, and commissariat, hospital corps, am-balances, and cavalry made a bold and brilliant display. But it was too late. What fighting there had been to do was "done. the city to be taken had been captered by the brave fellows who filled our cemeteries, our halls and our clubs; killed, amed ter life, or sick unto death amid the sweltering heat of July and scarcity of necessities. To General Gaselee, fired wich expectations of a brilliant. campaign, 1 was probaizy a mortification to arrive find the field comparatively clear, and, glancing over the outward signs of preservation which the Settlements presented, it may have been hard for him to realise what a desperate struggle had taken place here. But was his verdict allowed to weigh against the reports and dispatches of General Dorward, Captain Bayly, and others who bore the heat and burden of the day, and to whose able lead~ ership the issues were due? Is it not understood at home that but for the defence of the Settlements and capture of Tientsin City, the subsequent march to Peking would have been not to sare, but to avenge? Have the gallant struggle of Admiral Seymour's column, and the desperate fight of 13th July, when 900 killed and wounded was the price of the city, after four weeks' con tinual fighting with their attendant casualties, all gone for naught? For every man killed or disabled in the takin of Taku and Peking, well nigh 100 were thrown out here, and the entire overlooking of these palpable facts arouses feelings of incredulous indignation. We had men here who had been at Ladysmith, and considered their task there the lighter one. If the matter is due to some careless blunder, publicity may help to remedy it; if to deliberate intent for reasons too occult to fathom. then it may be some solace to the comrades of the gallant heroes buried in our midst, to know the injury that has been done them has aroused the sympathetic indignation of all who know the work they did.
Tam ete., pecial correspondent throughout the Siege.
Tientsin, 10th January.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.