LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE ULTIMATUM TO CHINA.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:9
Sin,—Yotir paragraph and article in the Spectator of October 5th, " The Ultimatum to China," are calculated, in common with many others, to give the impression that for the recent massacre of missionaries in that country we have obtained very prompt redress. This is not quite accurate. The Viceroy, whose degradation we have secured was, as you say, the Viceroy of Sze-chuen, a province in the extreme west of China, bordering upon Thibet. There have been no mas- sacres there, but in the last days of May in this year there were riots, and in about a dozen places mission-stations were wrecked. In some cases missionaries were roughly handled, and native Christians very roughly, but no loss of life has been reported. The Viceroy has been proved to be directly responsible for these outrages, and he only just failed in his endeavour to prevent the missionaries communicating by telegraph with the nearest British Consul. The massacres took place on August 1st, in the province of Fnh-kien, a thousand miles to the eastward, the native Christians were untouched, and there is as yet no direct evidence of the com- plicity of the Viceroy, though the difficulties put in the way of the Commission of Inquiry, the threats used towards the native Christians who have given evidence, and the bad con- duct of the soldiers sent for the protection of the missions, justify suspicion of such complicity.—I am, Sir, &c.,
HENRY LAURENCE.
27 Crouch Hall Road, N., October 7th.
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