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Show AMERICANS AND BRITISH IN GRAVE DANGER 5 3 ml 5 ' A EGYPTIAN M0 B S BE SIEGE MISSIONARIES . ; BfUTISM AND AMER.tCAN REFOGDEi. AT WAST A ,v ' -V'jy - 5. . . tj, Yl S .? fy ' jZ : "aMEMCAN REPUOte CHaUkfcN fROM ALOlOO 7W& NILE HOW. ' Ma. ASK6REN Of- T AlviFUCAH R60 Indian Troops Loyal and Beleaguered Party Escapes Es-capes Down Nile. (Copyright, Canada, by the New York Herald Co:r.pany.) (CopyricM. l?l, by New York llorald ! Compare All R;t;lus KomtvoJ.) ! Special to tho Pa'.t Lake Tribune anJ I X. Y. Herald.) i BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS. AIRO. May 30. If t!;e v.lnV.o world ' were not in such a topsy-turvy and ; I turbulent condition, America would be greatly excited just now over j the fate of The American mis- I sior.ary families who liavo been I besieged aL A solvit. Kayoum, and sev- eral oth.er places In Ks"Pl- V'oreisn cor.i-1 cor.i-1 m.:nit'es alnost as la rue as that wh.lch the L'-o(-rs LMetei in Peking have been de-; de-; fer.d.ni,' themseivt-s ai;ainj-t iiati'.ta. As tt i is httie more ir.Mi a rippie up-n tne sur-! sur-! fare, little iiublic interest has bttii caused tiiereby. At last all tl'.e missonarios have escaped in sare;y, with uilt-a to tell for which there are no hearers except their own missionary mission-ary circles, for Cairo itself is in t!'.e midst ! o: exciting time?, with the menace of t tiireatened death ho ering near. Latest to arrive were fifty-tw o American men, women acd ch.ildren from Assiut, where i there Is a large I'nited Presbyterian n.ls-j n.ls-j ?:on coilee and girls' sehml and h.ospital. . Their story is an interesting one. I There had been intermittent excitement, i processions and meetings in Asiut. and a eenerai strike cf students and lawyers, ' evtr since the deportation of the four na-j na-j tiormhs; leaders to Malta. Railway com-i com-i munication i:ad been broken. Not until , Sunday. March '21. however, did the titua-' titua-' tion take a critical turn. While the mis-I mis-I sionaries end the Protestant F.yptlans ' were gathered in the native church or 1 Sunday morning a messenger brought J word to the preacher of trouble In the city. t After the "!on? prayer." and before tne ! sermon, the congregation whs dismissed i and told to go home and pray. I Soon afterward all the foreigners were j summoned by the British to the big gov-j gov-j eminent school between the canal and the .river, for the natives had attacked with .firearms. Men. women and children had . to camp in the schoolrooms. Rations were supplied by the British and the American women did the cooking lor the refugees. The men took their turn doing sentry duty, with whatever weaoons could be mustered. Some of the American men did not have their clothes off for a week. Airplanes Bring Ammunition. The most sinister aspect of the situation was the shortage of ammunition. The troops were Indians, numbering a hundred and twenty, and they were brave and loyai to the limit. But their supply of ammunition ammu-nition was low. and they did not have enough machine guns to enable them to i cope with the n;ots. who attacked from i three directions. Fortunately, owing to . tiie law which prohibits the natives from carrying firearms, the rioters were poorly , equipped with weapons. After the first day of fighting, help j came from the air. up the Nile by sea-I sea-I planes. Cairo, knowing the plight of the ! Assiut troops, sent an adequate supply of i ammunition and additional machine guns. After that there was no real likelihood that the position could be rushed by the natives. From Sunday until Friday noon, the besieged be-sieged carried on in reasonable comfort ar.d without panic. It was life in panic i style, for the refugees had taken from home almost nothing. One missionary. Dr. H. L. Finley. made his medical rounds in the city throughout the fighting. There was no animosity to the Americans, until the unfounded report spread that the British were using the tower of the American Amer-ican college as a vantage point from which to fire on the mobs. This rumor caused considerable bitterness, but it was later corrected. No secret was made, however, of the essential solidarity of the British -and ! American Interests. Both were refugees i under the same roof. American missionaries, mission-aries, while they did not actually particf- ' Date in the fighting, neverthless did guard duty by night. At no time have the Americans Amer-icans failed to show their condemnation 1 of the nationalist violence and their support sup-port of the fundamental British posiUon, although doubtless most of the missionaries mission-aries have sympathized with the Egyptian desire for recognition by the peace confer- : ence. Should the cry be raised in America ; that these Egyptians are being tyrannized over by the British, It should be remem- ' bered tha t all the A mericans in Egypt, most of them missionaries devoted wholly to tho people's welfare, side openly with the British against the present outbreaks. Thev differentiate between Egypt's practical prac-tical claim and the insurrection by lawlessness. law-lessness. Refugees are loud in their praises of the courtesy and efficiencv of the authorities during the present ordeal. Native Casualties Heavy. Of the, number of casualties at Assiut there is no official record. Four Indians were accidentally killed by British fire. Of the natives the number was large. One missionary ea id he saw a bridge about three-quarters of a mile long thick , with dead Arabs and Egyptians, who had been mown down by the guns. Fanatically Fanati-cally brave the insurgents were ; but bared breasts are no protection against j disciplined troops armed with modern weapons of precision. Tho mobs also : offered perfect marks for the aircra ft. i The neigli boring town of Waladia, with 1 a population of 1 0,00, was destroyed by 1 bombs, a nd there were many fatalities. After a siege of five days boats ap-. ap-. pearcd 'o take away the civilian population. popula-tion. The.';' were the old Hamburg-! Hamburg-! American sips now called the Anglo-A Anglo-A merbaii line and, appropriately. Brlt-i.vh Brlt-i.vh were put aboard the Victoria and A moricans uhoard the Puritan. Australia, Austral-ia, n troons were on guard. As hostile towns were passed the soldiers would prepare for possible action, but aside from occasional futile Hiiiplng thero were no ho." till tie. The nt vcet concern of the soldiers whs to secure milk for the Aineric-H n babies. That Nile Hip tho last the missionaries mission-aries or other civilians will make fur many a. moon took four days, on of which was spent on u vni.dhar. It is low water in the Nile. To enable relief boats to reach Asshr.. Luxor and other points, the authorities opened the A.--suan dam, w hei e water Is storrd lor irrigation purposes. This will disastrously disastrous-ly a fYect tho July crops. 1 n a score of ways all the Kgvpt'ans will suffer fur the deeds of the rioters. Meanu hile, the mobs In Aslnt destroyed de-stroyed everything British they ouid get t!u-!r bands upon. As elsewhere, the signal sig-nal (system of the railways, as well as t.:e permanent way itne'.f, was utterly wrecked. Kails and ties were thrown Into the canal ard poles were similarly treated. All the British chops and ir.anv belonging to the Greeks a rid Copts were looted. No damage wa done to any of the extensive American properties. Many Americans in Egypt. Famous In the annals of Christian missions mis-sions and travel is the American mission in Kcypt. which has been at work here for more than slty years. Whiie called t he Ameii-an mission. It really N a Vnltrd Preshyterlan enterprise, with l;s headq uarter-s in Pit Isi'iinr. 1 ;s w cekly public church service in c:ro en Sui.d.iy evenirts smacks more of western Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania than of eastern Eirypt. T.s ps.--.ms ttf David are sutur and t h n pe I of sermon and worshipers is distinctively I'nlwd 1 Prehyter!an. except for the j sprinkling of r'd-l;irhooslied Egyptians present. Nuuibi-irt of British at Lend, and after tho s'-rvk-o some of the soldi era remain for supper not dinner, mind ou, ' but supper. ' There a re ninety American m!slon-! m!slon-! aries in Eyp:, in addition to thirty-fix t learners a :i I other Aiin raan assistants, i Associated wit:i th-ni are .:: K.KVp'Jan , tuuiKters, e ar:;: l:.-ts. teachers, harem worker.-, Tnee all together operate rhurrhe.s und stations, wit.i a prod-slant niemh.-rship of a ho it JV'i.i. '1 here " are also :2 sr)i,,ols of a!! inchid-; inchid-; li!g two -o1:.-,h, eoniic-tid wiih tin- mission, mis-sion, and IT.ihMi .s;udetits. Tlire.- ho.ml-t.t!s ho.ml-t.t!s and fo'ir l ; ri-.i r:t s t n ;t d-d more tliari Oo.O'iu c.ises 1.-st -:ir: no rvi-sb-nary physiria !i lark.-, for p. it lents. bonier him; like l.mo i.-!::.'is in'toks wer- a'so so'd last -.-ar. T:::s i-xI'mimva m:.-sion work centers i :i Cairn. Alexandria. Assiut, Euxor. the ! a mini, 7,:i ar.it'. Km ha. . M; nsurn h. Tan La and poio along t he Nib-. Pi'i-ff-o of t.ieir canity and th.or-out'hness th.or-out'hness .-Mid fine y;trlt. t-n-se mlssirm-, mlssirm-, ar:e. have won the :avor of hoth natives ; and fore, filers. i ield in aSeyam e by the t ar. there is a treat pro.ie.-t under wav for the establish estab-lish men t h'-re of i.'.i Iro Christ hi n nniver-sit nniver-sit v, on t he ale of S;. nan 1 'rot !it colii-e at l-irut. and Ko: ert College. Constantinople. Tl'e former .Tetan- of the I nllei I Yesbytpnan mi.-s.on 1 on id. P.ev. 1 r. Charles . p. Wat son, nf Philadelphia, Phila-delphia, is pre idt nr of the embryonic university. TAv. ne-idtjuarters arc in Phh-a.b Phh-a.b 1; hia. |
