The position in Central and Southern China has grown no
better during the week. Shanghai has not been attacked, but receives daily streams of fugitives from little ports on the Yangtse. Its garrison is no stronger, and the town is said to be literally surrounded, though at some distance, by gathering bodies of soldiery and "Boxers." In Canton the people are "growing insolent," and the Viceroy, who is anti. foreign, is not only increasing his army and stopping the "Black Flags," who were going north, but has issued a copy of a decree announcing that there will be war. Chinese gun- boats are swarming in the river, and the Governor objects to any measures of precaution. No massacre probably will be ordered either at Shanghai or Canton till a signal has been given from Pekin, but obviously everything is ready. In far Hainan matters have probably gone farther, for the Governor has stated publicly that he can protect foreigners no longer, and it is reported that the missionaries, their converts, and the few traders in the island have already been put to death. The task of protecting Europeans in Hainan falls, of course, to the French.
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