SCENES IN THE CAPTURED CITY. TIENTSIN LOOTED
When once resistance had ceased there was time to look about one,
and it was a scene worth remembering that met the eyes, if only it
had been possible to shut out some of the hideous effects of the
last two days’ fighting. From the top of the wall one saw a large,
densely-built city which at first only seemed to boast of three
roads, one encircling the whole, and the other two equally dividing
it into four parts, meeting at the centre, where their intersection
was marked by an imposing-looking structure, which might have been
either pagoda or gate. In its most peaceful days it is improbable
that any one thought it beautiful. “Striking” is perhaps the word
which would have been employed by a globe-trotter. However, Tientsin
was unlike itself on the morning of July 14, and had it ever been
striking, it was then doubly so. The first thing to be noticed
was the gate of entry, which was blazing furiously, together with
what remained of a fine pagoda which had been built on the top of
it. The latter had been literally pulverised by shells, and had been
burning for some hours. Though nearly burnt out, it caused great
inconvenience to the troops, who were compelled for the time to lie
in its vicinity. A glance at the wall also bore testimony to the
accuracy of the Allies’ artillery fire; and although the projectiles
were for the most part too small to inflict any great structural
damage, yet here and there the ramparts had been swept clear away
for several feet at a time. Twenty-three shell marks were distinctly
visible on the south gate walls, and on what remained of its pagoda,
and it must be admitted that the Chinese who defended this and the
neighbouring portions of the wall, showed a tenacity not to be
gainsaid.
[Illustration: MAIN ROAD—TIENTSIN.
[_page 176._]
It is doubtful whether, with the exception of a few in the suburbs
and prison, the enemy lost as many as thirty men from rifle fire on
the whole of the 13th; for the wall was so thick, and the loopholes
so small, that even the possibility of a stray bullet finding a
fleshy resting-place was almost precluded.
Shells, however, had done their work elsewhere, as destructively to
material and perhaps more so to life, as they had done on the walls.
They had burst promiscuously when once they had passed over the
walls; and from what the Allies had seen of promiscuous shelling it
was not held to be particularly dangerous; but here the conditions
were somewhat different. Hardly a shell could pitch without landing
on a roof, and then the houses were of a much more inflammable nature
and densely packed with human beings.
From this, and from the general appearance of the town, it may be
assumed that the actual damage done in the last twenty-four hours’
incessant shelling was nearly equal to that which was the effect
of many days’ dilatory bombardment on the part of the Chinese. The
casualties, which were the result of it, were undoubtedly heavier
than those which occurred in the settlements, from a similar cause,
during the whole month’s siege. The further one went into the city,
the more horrible were the scenes with which one was confronted.
Shrapnel, common shell, and lyddite had spared no one; every type was
to be found there lying where they fell, killed, one might almost
say, by an accident,—male and female, old men and little naked
children. Brutalised as one gets when fighting against a merciless
foe, it makes one shudder even now to look back on it! The numbers
were largest towards the north gate, but in this case men were
looking on the bodies of their proper enemies, the paid soldiers
of the hostile government; and, after gazing on the scene just
pourtrayed (one hundred times more lightly than the reality, out of
respect for the feelings of those who peruse this chapter) there was
for them no room for sentiment. Rather sad too was the sight of the
ten or twelve corpses, all laid on hastily improvised stretchers, to
be seen in most of the courtyards of the Yamens, which had evidently
been turned into hospitals for the occasion. Some of these had been
attended to while still alive, but the bandages were put on in a
careless and slovenly manner, and testified neither to the skill nor
the attention of the native doctors. No wounded were found in these
places, which points to the fact that the Chinese, even in their
hasty retreat, retained some of the cohesion without which any body
of armed men quickly becomes a rabble.
There was plenty of evidence to prove that anarchy had reigned
supreme for the last day or two; many houses had been forcibly
entered, and their less valuable contents strewn about the streets;
and the severed heads of several Boxers were to be seen hanging
to poles by their pigtails, which showed dissension had been rife
between the Regulars and their fanatical Auxiliaries. All sanitary
arrangements had been disregarded, and a most unpleasant reek of
decomposing garbage offended the senses at every turn.
The fire brigade, if such a thing existed, had naturally decamped on
the fall of the south gate, and the Allies found the town on fire in
a dozen places, notably in the N.W. and S.E. quarters. The reason
that these two quarters suffered most heavily in this respect, while
the N.E. and S.W. quarters enjoyed comparative immunity, is easily
explained, when it is understood that the majority of the Allies’
guns were facing the N.W. to S.E. diagonal, so that should a shell
just top the wall, it perhaps created a fire in the S.E. corner,
whereas, if elevated for another three or four hundred yards, it had
a similar chance of doing so in the N.E. corner.
There was a good deal to be done, one of the most important things
being the barring of ingress to any one but Europeans. To ensure
this, all the gates were guarded, and all outgoing Chinamen were
searched, and permitted to go, while all candidates for admission
were searched and turned back.
A rather grim incident occurred during the police work at the north
gate. The Japanese were guarding the bridge outside the walls when
two Chinamen came along, dressed like coolies, and begged for
admission. This was at once refused; whereupon the two men tried to
shove past the guard. Of course such temerity was fatal; they were
leapt upon and thrown to the earth, after which they were searched;
on each were found arms and ammunition, and both were immediately
“despatched,” and their bodies hurled into the river. Some one near
by, expressed the opinion that it was rather an arbitrary method of
dealing with them; but by every rule of war their fate was deserved.
They were spies with arms concealed on them, and by their eagerness
to get inside the gates, it may be supposed that some plan was to be
carried through to the detriment of the troops in possession, which
was only frustrated by their timely end. It was, however, noticeable
that later candidates carried themselves with more submission than
the two whose fate had been just witnessed.
The first thing that the British did, when the city had been
cleared, was to seize a number of the junks which crowded the river
along the northern wall, as well as two steamers, one a convenient
little launch, the other a paddle steamer which, though tried for
some time, eventually proved useless. The junks were expected to
be of great assistance in the forthcoming advance on Pekin, and
although some were too big for the higher reaches of the river, yet
many proved of inestimable value in conjunction with the transport
arrangements for the above named expedition. Guards were placed on
every gate, and by two o’clock it was possible to withdraw some of
the troops to the settlement. No sooner was personal safety assured
than the city became full of people, all bent on plunder,—in fact the
looting of Tientsin had begun. LOOT, a word which had seemed to have
died a natural death in favour of “commandeer,” is only a polite way
of talking about the act of transferring some one else’s property
to one’s own pocket, or as it happened in this case, to one’s own
rickshaw. It was now the one topic of conversation, the one aim of
every one able to roam the streets of Tientsin, unfettered by orders
or scruples; and it is safe to say that every one, except the British
soldiers and sailors, and other troops on duty, indulged in this
pursuit at the earliest opportunity and to the fullest extent. This
is not meant to mislead people into thinking that the British did no
looting, but merely to point out that at first it was the intention
of the British authorities not to allow it, a moral desire which was
at last overcome by the example set by every one else, including
civilians, who had taken no share in the fighting, but who saw a
chance to recompense themselves for any loss they had sustained by
Chinese shells. When the British forces did start, however, nearly
everything of any value had been taken; and as only two days were
allowed, there was no time to search under floors, and in hollow
walls, which were the hiding places for the bulk of the hidden
bullion. Be this as it may, it can safely be said that there were
but few in the brigade who had not the word “loot” lightly engraved
on their hearts by the 15th, by which time it was proposed to divide
the city into spheres of influence under military command. The word
“lightly” is used advisedly, for their looting was of the gentlemanly
order, and not accompanied by threats, outrage, and even murder,
which was unfortunately the case with at least two of the other
European contingents. It was extraordinary to see the trust reposed
in the Japanese, British, and Americans. The house-holders would
ask for flags, and a guard to protect them from some of the others;
and hundreds of little home-made flags fluttered from the doorways
and windows in every direction. One writer on the subject remarks
with surprise, on the number of Japanese and French flags that were
shown. A little thought would have shown him that they are in the
first place ridiculously easy to imitate, the first one needing but
a red blob on a white ground, and the second a little red ink, a
clear white stripe, and a stripe of the ordinary blue ink, make a
very fair tricolor. The first were also shown with the earnest desire
to propitiate, the second because, not being able to make British
or American ensigns, they thought that any protector was perhaps
better than none. Now so much has been said and written on the great
evils of looting, and especially on the looting of Tientsin, that a
summing up of the case by one who was to a certain extent “in the
know” can hardly be inappropriate or uninteresting. To begin with,
the evidence of many of those who have written articles to the papers
in denunciation of the authorities, or of the allied troops, is worth
but little, as it is more than probable that, by infringing some
of the rules, they lost what they themselves had looted, and their
bitter feelings may be accounted for by the fact that although it is
occasionally “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved
at all,” it is certainly not better to have looted and forfeited,
than never to have looted at all. Thus a proportion must be deducted
from the ranks of “conscientious objectors” whose argument is that
the transferment of some one else’s property to oneself is never
permissible, except it take the form of an exchange, a sale, or a
gift; also that the recognised law in civilised warfare is that
looters will be shot.
On the other side of the argument are to be found of course all the
participators, and a multitude of people who envy the latter their
good fortune, but whose envy does not go far enough to cause them
to act protector of the down-trodden, through the medium of the
press. These very rightly say, that in the first place the Tientsin
looting was not an incident in civilised warfare at all; “devilishly
cruel” has been already applied to the Chinese in this book, but the
superlative has not yet been coined which would adequately describe
the treatment of women and the wounded who fell into their hands.
Then again the power to “save face” is so highly thought of in China,
that had Tientsin not been looted, and had it not been decided to
alter the face of the city in other ways as well, it is probable that
one of the most valuable lessons of the whole war would have remained
untaught. Another excellent excuse was the fact that quite a third
of the city was in flames, in which case, had no looting taken place,
thousands of valuables would now be no more, whereas they have gone
to gladden the hearts of the womenfolk, and to brighten the rooms of
every nation of any importance from Japan westward to America.
After all, there is precedent without end, for in nearly every
instance where a city has fallen by direct assault, and where there
has been only flight, not surrender, on the part of the defenders,
the town has been sacked. The force of example need hardly be quoted
as an excuse, because it amounts to an admittance of moral weakness,
and in no case do two wrongs make a right. But War itself is hardly
an ideal state of affairs, and it is harsh to blame a little easing
up of discipline within strict limits, after a bloody and bitter
conflict, brought to a successful issue solely by the discipline and
devotion of the troops engaged. If further argument is necessary, it
remains to be said that by far the greatest thieves were the Chinese
themselves, who as soon as they found they were not noticed in the
general scramble, were untiring in their endeavours to make their
fortune at the expense of others; and these men, not even excepting
the civilians from the settlement, were undoubtedly those whose
measure of success was greatest. As a proof of how partial the sack
of the city really was, a well-known Chinese Tientsin banker remarked
quite recently, that of thirty-eight banks of importance, and the
treasury, only the latter and one of the former had been touched,
thanks to the innate “wile” of the owners, who invariably take the
greatest pains to put their wealth out of sight. Given the desire
and power to loot, it only remains to be told the method employed by
the various nations, and for the loot to be described, to gather a
fairly accurate idea of the scene. The arrangement at first had been
to allow looting to be proceeded with until noon on the 15th, when it
would be suppressed; and all loot found in the possession of people
who had broken the rule would be forfeited to a common fund to go to
the troops who had done the fighting.
To begin with the British: there were bluejackets, marines,
infantrymen, engineers, Indians, and the Chinese regiment, most of
whom were working in parties, which in many cases had officers with
them. In this they differed from any other nation, and it was a
wise step to take. It at least ensured the absence of the slightest
brutality, and it minimised the risk of collision with other troops,
which was always to be reckoned with, in the then state of men’s
minds. A dispute at that time over a pawnshop, a fur cloak, or
an ornament, must have had very serious consequences, as the men
were all fully armed, and each nationality was as suspicious and
jealous as possible of the others. As a matter of fact the British
troops proved comparatively unsuccessful as looters. They started
late, behaved so quietly, and seemed to have no idea of the value
of anything, except actual money or sycee, which latter it may be
explained was bar silver moulded into 4lb. ingots worth about £7,
10s. each. Then again, although either the treasury or the salt
commissioners’ Yamen might have fallen into their hands, they allowed
themselves to be passed by the Japanese and Americans respectively.
The British civilians, however, supplied all deficiencies and
made most successful hauls. In order not to hurt innocent and
“conscientious objectors’” feelings, it must be mentioned that only
those who looted are spoken of, and not all and sundry, as might have
been assumed from the foregoing sentence. They, of course, knew the
very houses to go to, they knew the value of every article, they had
their own servants, and in some cases their own conveyances to carry
their gear from the spot where it was found to their residences, in
fact for them not to have made the best of it would have shown a
lack of grasp of the situation to be wondered at.
The Japanese were stern but humane looters; they saw what they
wanted, took it and went, and unless molested or baulked they hurt no
one. The Americans were also a free-and-easy lot of fellows; they too
demanded, not asked, and they too were harmless if not crossed. It
may be said that the same humane line of action that was followed by
these three nations during the whole campaign was carried out to the
letter in the demoralising times during the looting of Tientsin. It
is not proposed to discuss the ways of the other nations; not that it
is to be supposed for one instant that they are all tarred with one
brush. For instance, the Russians and Germans did not participate in
the looting of Tientsin proper, and the Austrians and Italians were
so small in numbers, that their looting power suffered in comparison
to the troops of other countries; while to enlarge on the undoubted
prowess possessed by _l’infanterie de la marine_, although it would
only be to endorse what has already been said, would probably raise
a storm of indignation and gesticulation to which the author has
neither time nor inclination to reply. The supply of loot itself was
nearly if not quite equal to the demand. Sycee abounded, furs and
silks were so common that anything except sable and mink were trodden
underfoot, and none but the most beautiful embroideries were thought
worth the space they occupied. Rolls of the most beautiful silk,
worth pounds, were treated as if they had been calico; astrakhan,
squirrel, and fox skins were left to the Chinese who had been too
tired to run away. Silver watches simply bored one, and on asking
the time from a stranger he would probably give you a couple of this
type of timepiece. Gold and enamel watches were there also; watches
set with pearls, and eighty-guinea gold repeaters, were all to be
got; but these mostly came out of houses, not from the shops. Of
silver articles of jewellery there were literally sacksful, but only
the lucky few managed to get hold of gold rings with jewels in them,
of which there was a more limited supply. In real Jade bracelets
and ornaments there were several fortunes, but the ignorance of the
men for the most part was responsible for these being either thrown
down, or left to fall into the hands of some lucky officer. Even the
looting had to end, and by noon on June 15th there were pickets out
guarding the approaches to the British concession, with orders to
allow no one to retain any plunder except French subjects, whose
consul or commander had not fallen in with the general plan. Many
curious things happened, some folk coming in with dignity, striving
for a place; on their features could be seen “Avarice satisfied”
as plainly as possible. Others, in ignorance of the law, came and
conversed with the officer of the picket, and assured him that there
was plenty left, and if only they had a hay-cart instead of a broken
rickshaw, the former would have been just as full as the latter.
On being apprised of the state of affairs, entreaty and invective
held the ring in turn against all comers for quite a time. Some, more
wily, who possessed a knowledge of French, tried to palm themselves
off as Frenchmen. About this is a curious story to be told, first
mentioning that a similar story is current, which had quite a
different ending, but which, in all other respects, tallies with this
one. Several rickshaws came along under the charge of two or three
men, who, when stopped by a military picket, jabbered away in French,
shrugged their shoulders, lifted their hands, and twirled their
moustachios to such an extent that they were allowed to pass; but,
unfortunately, they “struck” a naval picket, under the command of a
very small, but very officious midshipman, who considered it to be
nothing less than sinful to allow such a haul to escape his clutches,
so he ordered the party to barracks for investigation. They didn’t
want to go a bit, and at last their French broke down when they had
got half-way, and found that, owing to the young officer having but
an imperfect knowledge of the language, it was impossible—quite
impossible—to persuade him to alter his mind by arguing in French.
Finally, the loot and its erstwhile owners parted company, the latter
swearing volubly, but in English. And yet there are people who say
that the British Naval Officer’s greatest failing is his want of
knowledge in foreign tongues! Incidents of the same sort followed
each other in quick succession, and by the night of the 15th the
looting of Tientsin was at an end.