The other complication is the arrival of telegrams from Shanghai
reporting imminent danger to that great centre of trade with China. Shanghai was supposed to be the one safe place for Europeans in the Empire, but this is not the opinion of the residents who are imploring assistance. They believe that the Governor of Shantung, who has just given up all native Christians to massacre, intends to attack Shanghai with his great army, and they say that the cruisers cannot defend them. The authorities have called in all women and children from the stations along the Yangtse, and it is probable that all will be at once sent away from Shanghai, which we think of as a European city, but which is totally indefensible, and surrounded by a population of four hundred thousand Chinese. There is a demand that part of the forces from India should be stopped to defend Shanghai, and it seems possible that if this is not done there may be an awful tragedy there also, the volunteers who pro- tect the European settlement numbering only eleven hundred men insufficiently provided with reserves of ammuni- tion. There is even a suspicion that Li Hung Chang has sent his Black Flags there, and it is certain that the treacher- ous old man, while professing friendship, has obeyed an order to start for Pekin, and to send his Army "Northwards."
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