Peking, Dec. 24.
No conflict of opinion with the Chinese, no Chinese official act and no outrage committed by soldiery or bandits has aroused such intense feeling among foreigners in North China for many years as the Coltman case. It may be because when Charles L. Coltman was fatally wounded by soldiers outside Kalgan on the 12th of this month the American, Consul, Mr. Sokobin, was in hie motor-car and was also under fire. The fact that Mr. Coltman had resided so many years in North China and was so widely known and so generally liked may have something to do with the intensity of feeling also. But it seems rather that the foreign communities regard this incident as the culmination of a series of outrages, growing out of Chinese indifference to the safety of foreigners in their country and Chinese contempt for foreign official representations, The feeling everywhere is that this must be the last of the series, that the American diplomatic representatives here must take such drastic action that every Official, soldier and would-be outlaw in China will*hear of, it and that the American Minister owes it not only to his own nationals but to all foreign residents in China to demand the heaviest possible penalties and to bring force to bear, if need be, to see that whatever programme of atonement he outlines for the Chinese Government is car-"ried out to the letter.
HEAR BOTH SIDES, In many circles feeling is running so high that it is almost hysterical and in these circles anyone who suggests that there have been two sides to the story, that the Chinese might possibly have something to say for themselves, is almost in physical danger. It is true that one has only to review the facts in the case to understand that no amount of explanation can palliate the offence, but it is also true that if heavy demands are made and heavy penalties exacted the Chinese people generally must be made to understand the justice of such mands and penalties. No Government would be interested in acting, in such a case as this, in a purely vindictive spirit. Whatever steps are taken will be taken for the purpose of deterring repetitions of this and similar outrages. If the atonement does not act as a deterrent then it will only serve to aggravate whatever anti-foreign feeling exists in the country and to pave the way for even more serious incidents. If Chinese -sentiment generally does not endorse whatever action the American Minister takes in this then his action will not act' as a deterrent and it is futile to think that Chinese opinion general-} ly will endorse such drastic action as the foreign communities in North China are suggesting unless the Chinese side of the case is taken up in detail, analyzed in detail and rejected in detail on logical grounds which will appeal to the Chinese sense of justice.
Anyone who travels to Kalgam and back on the railway will hear the case being discussed in Chinese all about him. "In every quarter the sentiment expressed is something like this: Lhe foreigners are in the habit of thinking that we Chinese are just rubbish. They think they can knock us about and shoot at us when they are so inclined and that we have no right to defend ourselves. It appears that in this case one of them tried it once too cited and\ got what he deserved. Our officials ought to stand firm and resist all' demands." It will be obvious that while the Chinese en-terrain such views of the case no penalties exacted will deter repetitions nor improve the relations of of foreign traders with Ohinese officials. It is only through an impartial study of the incident from all angles that one -can get the materials with which to demonstrate to the Chinese people at large that it is as much to their interest and credit as ib is to the interest and credit of the foreigner that the officials in Kalgan should be drastically dealt with. With something like this in mind the writer went to iKaigan on Tuesday of this past week, spent several days there and returned to sort out and digest a great mass of conflicting evidence obtained from foreign residents, fiom responsible Chinese officials, and from other Chinese of various degrees.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.