There’s
a rumor flying round
You
are going to hold your ground
Waldersee.
You
are going to stay and fight
While
the others fade from sight
Waldersee.
You
are going to lick ‘em all,
Boxers
great and boxers small,
Ching
and Chang and Li and Ling,
Wu
and Wop and Wow and Wing,
Waldersee.
If
you think that John will run
When
you shoot your little gun,
Waitandsee.
If
you think that you can rap
China
off the whole blamed map,
Waitandsee.
John
is foxy, when it pays,
John
has got some slipp’ry ways,
He’s
a fighter through and through,
He
will do the Dutch on you,
Waldersee.
Sept.
26, 1900
Alfred
Ludwig Heinrich Karl Graf von Waldersee (8 April 1832 in Potsdam – 5
March 1904 in Hanover) was a German Generalfeldmarschall who
served as Chief of the Imperial German General Staff from 1888 to 1891 and
as Allied Supreme Commander in China in 1900-1901.
Two thousand European and Chinese Christians
were trapped in the legation compound at Peking by Boxer insurgents in
1900. An eight-nation International Relief Force of European, American and
Japanese troops maneuvered to the rescue. As Kaiser Wilhelm II’s minister to
China, Baron Clemens von Ketteler, had been murdered by the Boxers, the
Germans "claimed a certain priority in the crusade against Chinese
barbarism." The now semi-retired, sixty-eight-year-old, but for the
occasion the newly promoted Field Marshal Alfred Count von Waldersee was
proposed by the Tsar of Russia, and seconded by the Japanese, as the first
Allied Supreme Commander of modern times.
Preparations for the field marshal's departure
from Germany to China caused a good deal of satirical comment on what became
known as Waldersee Rummel or "Waldersee theatricals" —
which he detested. Much of this circus, he wrote in his irritation "...
unfortunately made it into the newspapers." Waldersee arrived at the
frontlines of Peking too late to direct his multinational force in any fighting
of note, but was in charge of the pacification of the Boxers. "These
punitive expeditions ... were unrewarding enterprises [and] from Waldersee's
point of view ... hardly constituted war." It is probable, however,
that "if his appointment had not existed, or if it had been filled by a
less positive personality, the animosities which ceaselessly embittered the
[international] contingents in North China would have assumed serious
proportions. ... [In addition] there were countless minor incidents, and it is
at least partly to Waldersee's credit that nothing came of them." A
woman named Sai Jinhua, who he had met in Europe, renewed her acquaintanceship
with Waldersee. Ying Hu wrote that "Legend has it that in the
"dragon bed" of the Empress Dowager, which Sai and Waldersee shared,
she tried and sometimes succeeded in curbing the brutality of the troops." Wenxian
Zhang wrote that Sai Jinhua "was credited with influencing Waldsee [sic]
to moderate the harsh treatment of Beijing residents." Sai Jinhua, in
her biography, admitted that she was on good terms with Waldersee but, as
stated by Hu Ying, she "vigorously" disputed that she had a sexual
relationship with him.
Count Waldersee understood that the conduct of
the conquerors was unbecoming: their soldiery was idle and bored, venereal
disease was rampant, and after looting was curtailed, the rank-and-file
remained gullible enough to be swindled with "Chinese art" of all
descriptions. At the end of the campaign he hastened his return to Germany.
In 1901, for his "accomplishments in the interest of world peace," he
was named an honorary citizen of Hamburg, his erstwhile home.
John probably refers to
Captain John T. Myers, USMC, who led the initial US forces during the rebellion.
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