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48-617: Boxer Protocol The Seymour Expedition ( Chinese : 西摩爾遠征 ) was an attempt by a multinational military force to march to Beijing and relieve the Siege of the Legations from attacks by Qing China government troops and the Boxers in 1900. The Chinese and Boxer fighters defeated the Seymour armies and forced them to return to Tianjin (Tientsin). It was followed later in the summer by

96-406: A Manchu political and military leader who was working to derail the efforts to capture the legations. The next few days went slowly, as Seymour had to repair railroad tracks and fight off Boxer attacks as his trains advanced. On 14 June, several hundred Boxers armed with swords, spears, and gingals attacked Seymour twice and killed five Italian soldiers. The Americans counted 102 Boxer bodies left on

144-714: A draft Sino-Soviet agreement stating, "The government of the USSR agrees to renounce the Russian portion of the Boxer Indemnity." Copies of these terms were published in the Chinese press, and the positive public reaction encouraged other countries to match the USSR's terms. On May 21, 1924, the U.S. Congress agreed to remit the final $ 6,137,552.90 of the American share to China. Ten days later, however, it became apparent that

192-509: A force of more than 2,000 sailors and marines from European, American, and Japanese warships. He prepared to embark for Beijing by train from Tianjin, 75 miles away. His force consisted of 916 British, 455 Germans, 326 Russians, 158 French, 112 Americans, 54 Japanese, 41 Italians, and 26 Austrians. Seymour's Chief of Staff was Capt. John Jellicoe . The diplomats in Beijing anticipated that Seymour would arrive on 11 June. They neither requested

240-570: A large moving target for the Boxers and Imperial troops. The would-be rescuers ... required rescue themselves." The Western and Japanese soldiers and civilians in Beijing were left to withstand a 55-day siege by the Boxers and their Qing allies. It took more than a month after the Seymour expedition for the Eight-Nation Alliance to organize a larger and better-equipped army to defeat the Chinese and march on Beijing in order to relieve

288-719: Is still in ceremonial use with the Atholl Highlanders . Small numbers of Lee–Metford rifles were built as, or converted to, experimental semi-automatic loading systems, such as the British Howell and South African Reider and the best-known of which was the Charlton Automatic Rifle , designed by a New Zealander, Philip Charlton in 1941 to act as a substitute for the Bren and Lewis gun light machine guns which were in chronically short supply at

336-408: The exchange rates of the time) were to be paid as indemnity over 39 years to the eight nations involved. The Chinese paid the indemnity in gold on a rising scale with a 4% interest charge until the debt was amortized on December 31, 1940. After 39 years, the amount was almost 1 billion taels (precisely 982,238,150), or ≈1,180,000,000 troy ounces (37,000 tonnes) at 1.2 ozt/tael. The sum

384-511: The 10,000 rounds that the deeper, square-cut Enfield rifling pattern rifles could deliver. The Lee rifles fitted with Enfield barrels became known as Lee Enfields. Regardless of the shortfalls brought about by the use of black powder, the Lee–Metford went through several revisions during its short service life, with the principal changes being to the magazine (from eight-round single stack to ten-round staggered), sights, and safety. Starting in 1895,

432-479: The Americans had thought to pack additional rounds. However, they reportedly never considered surrendering. On 23 June, six miles from Tianjin, Seymour came across the Chinese army's Xigu fort and arsenal which, inexplicably, was nearly undefended. The foreign soldiers were quick to shelter inside, looting the arsenal's supplies of food and replacing their weapons and ammunition. Realizing their mistake in leaving

480-709: The Boxer Indemnity to support railway construction in China. On April 12, France asked that its indemnity be used to reopen a defunct Sino-French Bank. Italy signed an agreement on October 1 to spend its share on the construction of steel bridges. The Netherlands' share paid for harbor and land reclamation. The Netherlands also used its indemnity for the establishment of the Sinological Institute at Leiden University . The Belgian funds were earmarked to be spent on railway material in Belgium. Finally, Japan's indemnity

528-760: The Boxer movement. During one of the battles at Langfang, Boxers armed with swords and spears charged the British and American troops. The British were armed with .303 Lee–Metford rifles, while the Americans carried with them the M1895 Lee Navy . At point-blank range, one British soldier had to fire four bullets into a Boxer before he stopped; the American commander, Bowman McCalla, also reported that his men had witnessed Boxers sustaining multiple bullet wounds before dying. Seymour turned his five trains around and headed back toward Tianjin. However, he found that either

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576-552: The Boxers another 200. The need to care for the wounded, a lack of supplies, and the likelihood of additional Chinese attacks led Seymour and his officers to decide to retreat to Tianjin. The Chinese army's unexpected attack on Seymour was a response to the European and Japanese attack on the Dagu Forts two days previously; combined with news of Seymour's incursion, the formally neutral Qing government threw its full support behind

624-567: The Boxers began posing a more significant threat, it became apparent that additional troops were needed. On 9 June, Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald , the British Minister in China, cabled Vice-Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour , commander of the British navy's China Station , that the situation in Beijing was becoming more serious and that troops should be landed with all arrangements made for an advance to Peking [Beijing] at once. Responding to MacDonald's message, Seymour assembled in 24 hours

672-589: The Boxers or the Chinese Army had destroyed the bridge across the Hai River he had crossed previously. The expedition would either have to cross the river by boat and walk eighteen miles to Tianjin along the railroad or follow the river for a longer route of 30 miles. The sailors, perhaps more comfortable near water, chose to follow the river; Seymour did not challenge their decision despite the overland route being shorter and less exposed. Seymour's retreat down

720-665: The German and Austrian shares of the Boxer Indemnity. The history surrounding Russia's share of the Boxer Indemnity is the most complex of all the nations involved. On December 2, 1918, the Bolsheviks issued an official decree abolishing Russia's share of the Indemnity (146). Upon the arrival of Lev Karakhan in Beijing during the fall of 1923, however, it became clear that the Soviet Union expected to retain control over how

768-408: The Hai River was slow and difficult, covering only three miles the first day. The riverbanks were densely populated with civilians sympathetic to the Boxers who ambushed the soldiers as they passed and caused further delays. Additional casualties included Capt. Jellicoe, who suffered a near-fatal wound. By 22 June, the soldiers were out of food and down to fewer than 10 rounds of ammunition per man; only

816-578: The Indemnity to support the education of Chinese students in the United States and the construction of Tsinghua University in Beijing, thanks to the efforts of the Chinese ambassador Liang Cheng . When China declared war on Germany and Austria in 1917, it suspended the combined German and Austrian share of the Boxer Indemnity, which totaled 20.91 percent. At the Paris Peace Conference , Beijing succeeded in completely revoking

864-501: The Lee–Metford started to be phased out in favor of the mechanically-similar Lee–Enfield for the reasons outlined above, involving a change to Enfield barrels and sights adjusted for the flatter trajectory enabled by the smokeless propellant. Replacement of the Lee–Metford rifles took several years to achieve, and they were still in service in some units during the Second Boer War in 1899. Poor sighting-in and quality control at

912-617: The Manchu Enming to send troops to Hetao , where Prince Duan's Mongol troops and General Dong Fuxiang's Muslim troops allegedly threatened Catholics. It turned out that Bermyn had created the incident as a hoax. One of the false reports claimed that Dong Fuxiang wiped out Belgian missionaries in Mongolia and was going to massacre Catholics in Taiyuan. The Qing did not capitulate to all foreign demands. The Manchu Governor Yuxian

960-434: The Russian share was to be spent. Though Karakhan was initially hesitant to follow the United States' example of directing the funds toward education, he soon insisted in private that the Russian share had to be used for that purpose and, during February 1924, presented a proposal stating that the "Soviet portion of the Boxer Indemnity would be allocated to Chinese educational institutions." On March 14, 1924, Karakhan completed

1008-482: The USSR did not intend to carry through on its earlier promise of full renunciation. When the final Sino-Soviet agreement was announced, it specified that Russia's share would be used to promote education in China and that the Soviet government would retain control over how the money was to be used, an exact parallel to the U.S. remittance of 1908. On March 3, 1925, Great Britain completed arrangements to use its share of

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1056-916: The United States) as well as Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands, after China's defeat in the intervention to put down the Boxer Rebellion . The protocol is regarded as one of China's unequal treaties . The 1901 protocol is commonly known as the Boxer Protocol or Peace Agreement between the Great Powers and China in English. It is known as the Xinchou Treaty or Beijing protocol in Chinese , where "Xinchou" refers to

1104-560: The arsenal undefended, the pursuing Chinese army attempted to dislodge Seymour's forces, which were now well provisioned and so repelled the Chinese attacks. A Chinese servant of the British slipped through to Tianjin and raised the alarm. A force of 2,000 soldiers marched out of the city to the arsenal on 25 June, and escorted Seymour's men back to Tianjin the next day. The Chinese did not oppose their passage. A missionary reported their arrival in Tianjin: "I shall never forget to my dying day,

1152-477: The attack, with a pincer movement around the European force. On 18 June, Dong Fuxiang's troops, stationed at Hunting Park in southern Beijing, attacked at multiple points, including Langfang. The force of 5,000 included cavalrymen armed with modern rifles. The foreign troops, especially the Germans, fought off the attack, killing hundreds of Chinese at a loss of seven dead and 57 wounded. The Kansu Braves lost 200 and

1200-543: The barrel, and to make cleaning easier. The magazines were also chained to the weapon to prevent it missing as it was expensive at the time. In spite of its many advantageous features, the Lee–Metford was something of an anachronism, due to its use of a black powder –loaded cartridge. By the time of the rifle's introduction, rifle design had moved on to using small-calibre smokeless powder cartridges, which allowed bullets to be propelled at much higher velocities without as much smoke or residue. The .303 ammunition designed for

1248-415: The battlefield at the end of one battle. The Chinese government had reversed its earlier positions after learning of the invasion, deciding to absorb the Boxer forces and order the army to defend against Seymour's march to the capital. Gen. Dong Fuxiang, along with his Kansu (Chinese Muslim) Braves, prepared to ambush the invading western army. Gen. Ma Fuxiang and Gen. Ma Fulu personally planned and led

1296-426: The defeat, held out hope for several weeks after that Seymore would come to their aid. Even the Chinese government were initially unaware of the victory. The Seymour expedition was described in foreign media as a "serious failure" and a "humiliation". Seymour had underestimated his Chinese opponent, trusting that he could push through to Beijing quickly with little or no opposition. Instead, "Seymour's expedition became

1344-480: The eminently adaptable Lee–Enfield served for another half century. In British service the Lee–Metford was also upgraded to the standards of later rifle patterns (e.g. to charger loading and Short Rifle, the SMLE pattern), though the barrel was almost always switched to one with Enfield pattern rifling. The Lee–Metford was produced commercially and used by civilian target shooters until the outbreak of World War I , as it

1392-491: The enemy approached; an Allied soldier, Bigham, said they had no "fear" or "hesitation". The expedition failed for several reasons, chief among them being overconfidence on the part of the Westerners, who regarded the Chinese as cowards and barbarians with no fighting skill; thus, the expedition was lightly armed and supplied on the assumption that reaching Beijing would be a matter of days. The Spectator pointed out that

1440-465: The expedition was "to embark on the assumption that any force of Europeans however small can beat any force of Chinamen however large." Further reasons include the loss of communication between the expedition and the Tianjin command due to Boxer sabotage of telegraph lines, the over-reliance on rail transport coupled with a failure to guard the railway (which allowed the bridge to be destroyed and rendered

1488-587: The factory level resulted in British rifles being woefully inaccurate at ranges greater than 400 yards (370 m). Nonetheless, captured Lee–Metford rifles became the primary weapon for the Boers too when their Mauser ammunition ran out. The British considered an entirely new rifle, the Pattern 1913 Enfield , based upon a modified Mauser design, but its development was cut short by the First World War and

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1536-566: The foreigners demanded. Instead, he moved to Alashan, west of Ningxia , and lived in the residence of the local Mongol prince. He then moved to Ningxia during the Xinhai Revolution when the Muslims took control of Ningxia, and finally moved to Xinjiang with Sheng Yun. Prince Duan "went no farther than Manchuria for exile, and was heard of there in 1908". On December 28, 1908, the United States remitted $ 11,961,121.76 of its share of

1584-668: The imperial court's permission nor informed the court of their intentions. They had, in effect, launched an invasion. Seymour commandeered five trains in Tianjin and departed for Beijing with his entire force on the morning of 10 June. On the first day, the soldiers travelled 25 miles without incident, crossing a bridge at Yancun over the Hai River unopposed; although Chinese Gen. Nie Shicheng and thousands of his soldiers were camped there, Nie's soldiers were friendly and did not attack. Nie had let Seymour's army slip past because he had deliberately been issued contradictory orders by Ronglu ,

1632-425: The long string of dusty travel-worn soldiers, who for a fortnight had been living on quarter rations, and fighting every day . . . the men were met by kind ladies with pails of tea which the poor fellows drunk as they had never drunk before – some bursting into tears." Of the initial 2,000 men in the Seymour expedition, there were 62 dead and 232 wounded. The besieged foreigners in the legations in Beijing, unaware of

1680-453: The payments for use within China. Lee%E2%80%93Metford Lee's bolt action mechanism was a great improvement over other designs of the day: In addition Lee introduced a superior detachable box magazine to replace the integral magazines in use with most repeaters, and this magazine offered greater capacity than the competing Mannlicher design. Metford's polygonal rifling was adopted to reduce fouling from powder residue building up in

1728-465: The rifle was in fact originally intended to be loaded with a smokeless propellant, but as a result of protracted development, selection of a smokeless propellant was delayed, forcing the British to rely on black powder in the interim. By the time Cordite cartridges were available, it was found that they were wholly unsuited for use with the shallow Metford rifling, which would wear out and render barrels unusable after approximately 6,000 rounds, compared to

1776-415: The siege of the legation quarter . Compared to the well-armed and trained Western forces, the Boxers had only limited quantities of firearms and largely fought with spears and swords; most of them were boys and common peasants who would simply charge directly into rifle fire without protection. Yet they fought with unmatched courage and determination, sometimes even faking death before springing back up when

1824-566: The successful Gaselee Expedition . Boxer bands advanced on Beijing in May and June 1900. The Qing court was ambivalent about the Boxers, fearing that they might become anti-Qing. The Boxers became a serious threat to Western and Japanese citizens, murdering missionaries and Chinese Christians living northern China. The diplomatic legations in Beijing requested that guards be sent to protect them. As such, more than 400 marines and naval troops from eight countries arrived in Beijing on 31 May. However, as

1872-662: The time. During the Second World War, the majority of New Zealand's land forces were deployed in North Africa. When Japan entered the war in 1941, New Zealand found itself lacking the light machine guns that would be required for local defence should the Japanese invade, and so the New Zealand Government funded the development of self-loading conversions for the Lee–Metford rifle. The end result

1920-502: The trains useless), and the overall lack of strategic planning and vision of Admiral Seymour. Boxer Protocol Boxer Protocol The Boxer Protocol was a diplomatic protocol signed in China's capital Beijing on September 7, 1901, between the Qing Empire of China and the Eight-Nation Alliance that had provided military forces (including France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Russia, and

1968-540: The year (1901) of signature under the sexagenary cycle system. The full English name of the protocol is Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, United States and China – Final Protocol for the Settlement of the Disturbances of 1900 , reflecting its nature as a diplomatic protocol rather than a peace treaty at the time of signature. The Qing dynasty

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2016-681: Was by no means completely defeated when the Allies took control of the capital Beijing . The Allies had to temper the demands they sent in a message to Xi'an to get the Empress Dowager Cixi to agree with them; for instance, China did not have to give up any land. Many of the Dowager Empress' advisers in the Imperial Court insisted that the war continue against the foreigners, arguing that China could defeat them since it

2064-704: Was considered to be inherently more accurate than the Enfield pattern of rifling. In this context, barrels and boltheads could be replaced as frequently as the owner wished, or could afford. It remained a reserve arm in many parts of the British Empire into WWII, even being issued to the New Zealand Home Guard and the Australian Volunteer Defence Corps until more modern rifles could be obtained. The Lee–Metford

2112-621: Was executed, but the Imperial court refused to execute the Chinese General Dong Fuxiang , although both were anti-foreign and had been accused of encouraging the killing of foreigners during the rebellion. Instead, General Dong Fuxiang lived a life of luxury and power in "exile" in his home province of Gansu. In addition to sparing Dong Fuxiang, the Qing refused to exile the Boxer supporter Prince Zaiyi to Xinjiang, as

2160-748: Was the Charlton Automatic Rifle (based on the obsolete MLE), which was issued to Home Guard units in NZ from 1942. Over 1,500 conversions were made, including a handful in Australia by Electrolux using Lithgow SMLE Mk III* rifles. The two Charlton designs differed markedly in external appearance (amongst other things, the New Zealand Charlton had a forward pistol grip and bipod, whilst the Australian one did not), but shared

2208-627: Was the disloyal and traitorous people within China who allowed Beijing and Tianjin to be captured by the Allies, and the interior of China was impenetrable. The Dowager was practical and decided that the terms were generous enough for her to acquiesce and stop the war when she was assured of her continued reign. The Boxer Protocol was signed on September 7, 1901, in the Spanish Legation in Beijing. Signatories included: and 450 million taels of fine silver (around 18,000 tonnes, worth approx. US$ 333 million or £ 67 million at

2256-504: Was to be distributed as follows: Russia 28.97%, Germany 20.02%, France 15.75%, Britain 11.25%, Japan 7.73%, United States 7.32%, Italy 7.32%, Belgium 1.89%, Austria-Hungary 0.89%, Netherlands 0.17%, Spain 0.03%, Portugal 0.02%, Sweden and Norway 0.01%. The French Catholic vicar apostolic, Msgr. Alfons Bermyn, wanted foreign troops garrisoned in Inner Mongolia , but the governor refused. Bermyn resorted to lies and falsely petitioned

2304-537: Was transferred to develop aviation in China under Japanese oversight. Once these countries' approximately 40 percent of the Boxer Indemnity was added to Germany's and Austria's combined 20.9 percent, the United States' 7.3 percent, and the Soviet Union's 29.0 percent share, the Beijing government had accounted for over 98 percent of the entire Boxer Indemnity. Hence, by 1927, Beijing had almost entirely revoked Boxer Indemnity payments abroad and successfully redirected

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