| Show IT WAS WORSE THAN USELESS I Inside History of the Chinese Japanese Peace Negotiations Ne-gotiations IT WAS A THIN PRETENCE There Was No Alternative But a Dismissal Fosters Annoyance Was So Grca That nn Open Quarrel Took Flaco Between Him anti His Client ana it Was Loud Enough to Be Overheard Over-heard By tie Crowds In the Streets Count fins Iilcna on Iho Matter San Francisco Feb 23The steame Gaelic brought the following Japanesa advices to the Associated Press Toklo Feb 6 Chinas attempt to negotiate for peace proved even more fruitless than was anticipated The Japanese are greatly disappointed ato the failure ot the Chinese government to give its envoys proper power to negotiate ne-gotiate for peace The Tsung Li Ya nen was warned by all the foreign diplomats and especially Minister Dun at Tokio that unless the envoys were given full power their errand would be worse than useless The most positive posi-tive pledges were given that the envoys en-voys would be genuine plenipotentiaries plenipotentiar-ies with full power to speak for their sovereign and it Is believed that stronger pledges were given Mr Foster Fos-ter The embassy came with the utmost ut-most confidence with a small colony of attendants and food and clothing that Indicated an indefinite stay A Slicer Pretense Yet at the first glance their credentials creden-tials made it evident that their errand er-rand was a sheer pretense Their duties du-ties were so imperatively limited that they could only listen to the conditions which Japan might propose report them to Pekln and await further instructions in-structions This being the case the Japanese could only dismiss them without with-out even discussing the peace proposition proposi-tion with them The envoys were given two audiences by the Japanese commission and Mr Foster was not allowed to be present at either On Feb 1 their credentials were examined ex-amined and on the following day they were informed that their errand was useless Three days after their arrival in Hiroshima the envoys were preparing to return to ChinaS China-S 5 Fosters Annoyance I Is reported that llr Fosters annoyance an-noyance was so great that an open quarrel took place between him and his clients The angry dispute is said to have been overheard by crowds in the street on which the Chinese were lodged Though the story is doubtless exaggerated it appears to be true that the American counselor contemplated leaving the embassy Jn Hiroshima and straightway returning to the United States but this decision was reversed and when the Chinese started on Feb 4 for Nagasaki he accompanied them to that port with a conditional promise to go still further if his assistance was found indispensable Viscount Mutsu returns to Tokio Immediately Im-mediately Both he and Count Ito would have been gratified If the embassy em-bassy had proved trustworthy and if negotiations of peace could have been safely undertaken At the close of the second and last interview in the Hiroshima Hiro-shima prefecture Count Ito told the envoys that whenever properly accredited a ac-credited delegates should be sent by their emperor they would be received with as much respect as If this unfortunate unfor-tunate error had not been committed Nothing In IXer Way If China desires to promptly renew her application no obstacle will be put In her way but it Is doubtful if anything any-thing can now check the advance ot the Invaders through Pechili and their occupation of Pekin |
