. And close to Tung-Chow girls
were actually seen walking into the shallow water and deliberately
holding their heads under the surface till they were drowned. Such a
tale seems very terrible. But to any one who had the opportunity of
judging of the conduct of portions of the Allied troops it was not in
the least surprising. Under similar circumstances our sisters and
wives would have done likewise.

The Russians and French carried off the palm for outrages on women
during the original march, and subsequently the Germans similarly
distinguished themselves. This was more particularly the case with
small bodies of men who were detached from the main force. In a
village on the way to Paoting-fu, for instance, through which a body
of Germans had just passed, three girls were taken by our troops out
of a well, into which they had been thrown before the Germans left.
They were still alive. This method of disposing of their victims was
frequently adopted by the soldiers as the safest way of hiding their
misdeeds and escaping the consequences.

News travels fast in China, and in advance of our march the people
seemed to be thoroughly aware of the fate that probably awaited them.
Although nearly the whole population cleared off before our advance,
there were many, especially women, who could not get away, and who
were unable to travel with their tiny compressed feet except in carts
or on the backs of their servants. And it was principally these who
finally, in the last extremity, committed suicide.

As the Chinese have agreed to erect a monument to Baron von Ketteler
in Pekin in commemorative apology for his murder, it appears to me
that there is an opportunity for the Allies to erect one also. It
might be of pure white jade, which the Chinese women love, which in
its translucent depths seems to hold the bright Eastern sunlight with
the detaining lingerage of a caress, and might bear an inscription
saying that it was erected in honour of the memory of the women and
girls of the province of Pechili who had sacrificed their lives to
save their honour.

All the way from the sea to Pekin, and for miles around Pekin itself,
the whole country was deserted by the inhabitants. A wave of fear and
horror preceded the advent of the Allies to such an extent that
hundreds of miles of what was the most thickly populated part of China
was absolutely deserted. After the relief of the Legations, the people
who ventured timorously to return