The Sun

PEKIN OCCUPIED—WHAT THEN.
Anent the appointment of Count Von Waldersee, the German, to supreme command of the foreign allies in China it would be well to consider the negotiations which will succeed the occupation of Pekin and the rescue of the legationers. Much will still remain to be done. Guilty officials must be punished. Indemnity and reparation must be arranged. Fleeing foreigners must be returned to the cities and towns from which they have been driven, or their successors to towns in which foreigners have been murdered. Their safety must be assured in the future. Chinese administration must be put on a new basis. The viceroys who have observed treaty rights must be protected. New viceroys, loyal to these rights, must be selected for the northern provinces, where the officials have aided abetted or submitted to the mob. These changes must be on a scale to work a permanent reform. They will call for the wisest statecraft, or in the course of these negotiations and readjustments treaty rights will be diminished and the open door closed. Germany has sent to China to represent its claims in all those acts and steps one of its very ablest men in military or civil life. He has behind him the Triple Alliance, and no man knows what secret understanding with Russia, and thereby with France. The United States, with England and Japan, has but one interest—the reorganization of Chinese administration on a basis which will secure order at home and promote freedom of trade abroad; but it is idle to suppose that these ends will come of themselves with a man like Count Waldersee directing the ambitions and aggressive policy of other Powers.