China.

Manawatu Herald, 21 July 1900, Page 2

China.

CAPTURE OF TIENTSIN. Further accounts are to hand of the fighting between the troops of the various European Powers at Tientsin at the end of last week, which resulted in the complete capture of the portion of the city occupied by the Chinese. CHINESE DECLARE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. General Tzuen at Hailar, in Manchuria, has officially declared war against Russia in that part of the country. Great excitement prevails in Russia and the trans-Baikal region of Central Asia. . . ... Chinese regulars and Boxeis seized a Russian boat with munitions of war near Aigun, on the south, bank of the Amur river, in North Manchuria, killing the majority of the escort. Two thousand Chinese, with eight guns, next bombarded Blagovestchensk, twenty miles north of Aigun, and ou the opposite bank of the river. The Chinese overwhelmed the garrison by .their fire. General Greboohki, who commanded the Russians, attempted to reach Aigun, which is a strougly-tortified centre, but the Chinese with masked guns in a cutting barred the way to his establishing connection with the transSiberian railway. Roused by the aggressive action of the Chinese in North Manchuria, the Russian Government is mobilising a quarter of a million troops for service there. The Russian tea and silk warehouses at Kalgan, valued at 1,670,000 roubles, have been burned. The Russian residents at Kalgan are now journeying towards Kiatchu. THE ALLIED ARMY. There were 21,000 troops ot the allied forces at Tientsin and Taku on the nth inst. It is calculated that at the end of August the number will have been increased to 80,000. An additional force of six thousand native troops is being sent to China from India The entire Japanese force of 22,000 men has been lauded at Taku.

THE YANGTSE VALLEY. The Times in commenting on the Chinese invasion of Siberia, refers to the alarming spread of Boxerism, and declares that the object of Li Hung Chang's exile at Canton was the organisation of the Black Flags, whose overland journey to Pekin is intended to set the Yangtse provinces in a blaze. SHANGHAI THREATENED. A hundred thousand Chinese, armed with Mauser rifles, but not provided with modern artillery, are within thirty miles of Shanghai, and threaten to seize the city if the Woosung forts, commanding the entrance to the Yangtse river, are attacked. A MILLION TROOPS MOBILISED. Prince Tuan has mobilised a million troops, and has ordered the northern corps to expel all foreigners from the Amur region. The first section of the Pekin army now operating against Mukden advances towards Thankaikwan. The second section has been ordered to'concentrate at Tientsin, while the third section will be centred at Pekin. Forty thousand troops are also being sent to Wei-hai-wei, the British port on the Gulf of Pi-chili, and Thintan. The fourth division has been directed to Nankin. The Chinese fleet is concentrating in the China Sea.