EXCITING TIMES IN PEKIN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 209, 2 March 1912, Page 5

EXCITING TIMES IN PEKIN

TROOPS GET OUT OF HAND. LOOTING, MURDERING AND FIRING. FOREIGNERS RESCUED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 1, 9.30 p.m. s Pekin, March 1. Owing to the non-payment of wages five thousand soldiers of the third division burnt their quarters near Yuan-Shih-Kai's headquarters, and, armed with rifles and bayonets, scattered about the town, looting the shops, particularly the goldsmiths' and pawnbrokers' and constantly .firing their rifles, to intimidate the populace, and bayonetting the resisting shopkeepers. A pawnshop near the Times' correspondent's residence was fired, and the conflagration assumed large proportions. A strange spectacle was presented, gangs of mutineers dancing around the conflagration and shooting madly into the flames, then rushing into the shops and staggering off laden with loot, wrapped in blankets and curtains. Meanwhile the foreign troops rescued foreigners and took them to the legation quarters. At mid-day seven great fires were burning, but the shooting dwindled owing to the exhaustion of ammunition. Parties of looters are leaving the city, their ponies laden with loot. ,

PROSPECTS OF TRADE. Sydney, March 1. Speakers at the Chinese picnic dealt with the great possibility of trade de- ■ velopments between Australia and the new China. The president of the Young China League declared that» the one ambition of the united parties was peace and devotion to the arts which gain advantage from peace. Cliinn's awakening meant the adoption of Western ideas, particularly regarding food and clothing, which would greatly interest producers of wool and wheat, enormous quantities of which commodities would be required.