were inspired with fresh fear owing
to the conduct of the Germans, who made up for being late for the
original expedition by availing themselves of every possible
opportunity of starting punitive expeditions on any possible pretence.
Coming at the time of the autumn harvest, the actual loss of money to
the inhabitants has been enormous.

From August to November a great tract of country was left deserted by
the inhabitants, who should have been employed in gathering in the
harvest. When I came down from Pekin in November there was no sign
whatever of life across the plains on either side as far as the eye
could reach. Thousands of acres of millet lay prone on the ground, and
their carefully-tended vegetable gardens were scored with black lines,
showing where the produce had rotted. When the Germans arrived in
September I heard one of their officers saying to Major Scott, who was
in charge of the river station at Tung-Chow, pointing to the fields of
millet which surrounded the camp, "Why don't you burn down all these
crops?" Major Scott replied that, besides not wanting to make life
harder for these unfortunate farmers, they wanted the fodder for their
own cattle. But, as a matter of fact, the destruction effected by the
absence of the people was just as great as if the wish of that German
had been carried out.

In all the discussions of the question of the amount of indemnity we
never hear anything of the amount of counterclaim which the Chinese
might rightfully make against us. The greater part of all this
destruction was absolutely contrary to every rule of civilised
warfare. In a district of about the extent of from London to Oxford
the inhabitants have lost the entire produce of the harvest, all the
villages and towns on either side of the river have been burned, so
that on the march up our path at night was literally torch-lit with
burning villages.

As was natural to expect, and as we have subsequently learned, many of
the inhabitants have been forced by the absolute necessities of
subsistence to band themselves together in companies of brigands,
whose depredations afford a fresh excuse to the Germans for continuing
hostile operations. The losses inflicted on the country in this way
are entirely outside the irreparable losses which were inflicted by
the destruction and despoiling of temples and innumerable works of art
which it will be impossible to replace. As regards these last
outrages, there was no officer