Lat appears that after the suspicions of the police had been aroused they arrested a youthful officer among the reorganized troops formerly belonging to General Chu Vu-pu, This officer confessed the whole story, stating that General Chu Vu-pu's men drove away the guards who all slong had been maintained at the Tombs; then it took a fortnight's excavations before the coffins were found.
From Chien Lungs tomb they took four "melons" made of emeralds, while from the coffin of a highly-placed Court lady, reported to be the Empress Dowager, they took a hu diamond formerly' worn in the Imperial crown.
Mat of the lot hax been sold in It was on the orders of General Yen Hsi-shan that the police began. to prosecute inquiries. tombs and aleo on the Western One of the vernacular papers reports that a magnificent pearl taken from the coffin of the Empress Dowager (the "Old Buddha") has been sold in Tientsin for $50,000.—Reuter, Graves Blown Open with Dynamite The Chinese papers on Aus. 6 contained further details of the desecration, According to these, the soldiers attempted several times to dig into the graves but they were of such impregnable nature that it was impossible to complete their work, However, a second attempt was made later and it was found that the coffins were covered with 13 layers of thick jade, The coffins were not, therefore, broken open ut the soldiers succeeded in tuk ing away some precious stones which were hoarded in the temples, Subsequently more soldiers, under the joint command of Gen. Chu and Marshal Sun Chuan-fang went the tombs and dynamited them, The result was that they were successful in removing a large quantity of precious stones from the debris and from the coffins, which were blown open, A quarrel ensued be-Jeause of unequal distribution of the booty and a number of shots were fired, several of the soldiers being killed, Upon learning of this, the Manchu leaders in Peking at once appealed to the Garrison Commis sioner to arrest. the looters and len jewels. An order issued and several ar-si-shan was extreme: ly angry when he heard of the affair and at once ordered hi ordinates to arrest. those
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.