Sir Robert Hart, in the _Fortnightly Review_ for January, 1901. This
witness has been for many years the most prominent and important
Englishman in China, and bears an irreproachable reputation for
moderation, fairness, and truth-speaking. In closing a description of
the revolting scenes which followed the occupation of Peking, when the
Christian armies (with the proud exception of the American soldiery, let
us be thankful for that) gave themselves up to a ruthless orgy of
robbery and spoliation, he says (the italics are mine):
And even some _missionaries_ took such a _leading_ part in “spoiling
the Egyptians” for the greater glory of God that a bystander was heard
to say: “_For a century to come Chinese converts will consider looting
and vengeance Christian virtues._”
It is Dr. Smith, not I, who has suggested that persons who act in this
way are “thieves and extortioners.” According to Mr. Lynch and Mr.
Martin (another war correspondent), Dr. Ament helped to spoil several of
those Egyptians. Mr. Martin took a photograph of the scene. It was
reproduced in the _Herald_. I have it.