Show ACUTE STA6E REACHED Crisis in China is Near a Climax = Next Few Hours Likely to Bring Word of 1 Momentous Import 11 t I Tension at Washington is Intense and Yesterday Was One of the S Extremest Anxiety of Watching and Waiting With On Meaner I and Fragmentary Information as to the Military and Diplomatic Diplo-matic PhasesCongers Messages Not Divulged Washington Aug 16Thc burcau of jiavlgatlon has made public the following follow-ing dispatch Taku Aug 12Just received an undated undat-ed dispatch from Chafe Matow yesterday yester-day opposition of no consequence yet terrible r I ter-rible heat many men prostrated l Please I I inform Secretary of War REME1 It will be seen from the message that the date oC Gen Chalfees arrival at Matow Is uncertain It Is taken at the Navy department to moan that Matow was occupied on the previous day the 31th and that the opposition was slight sloth on the road and In taking the town WHERE MATOW IS Matow Is about twelve miles by road i rom Ho SI Wu and the road as Indicated Indi-cated on the War department map Is of the worst possible character Matow is not a walled city and no serious opposition op-position was expected here It Is about eleven miles by road from iIatow to Chlng Chla Wan which Is really the suburb of the walled city of Tung Chow and the key to the gates of PekIng Pe-kIng If Gen Chaffee was at Matow on the llth it is quite possible that by today he is either in possession of Tung Chow or engaged with the retreating Chinese army that it was thought might make a stand behind Its walls The department is highly gratified ut the report of Gen Chaffces steady ndvance which for a week past has been scouted as foolhardy adventure I by some of the European war olllclals TENSION IS INTENSE C The tension of the Chinese situation has been Intense throughout the day for It appreciated by ofilclals that the crisis has reached an acute stage which cannot be continued many hours without with-out bringing word of momentous import im-port determining either for good or evil the entire course of events It has been a day of the extremest anxiety of watchifrg and waiting with only meager and fragmentary information PLS to the military and diplomatic phases v DISPATCHES FROM CONGER One of the new developments today was the statement that messages are being received from Minister Conger J which arc not transmitted through any of our officials in China or through the I Chinese Minister here but directly to the State department These messages p come by way of Tsl Nan Some of them 4 cannot be fully deciphered and for this reason the statement cannot be definitely defi-nitely made that the dispatches sent by the Government to Minister Conger are received by him So far as the Ii messages have been deciphered there is 1 no indication that Minister Conger received re-ceived any information or dispatches I from our State department Nothing could be learned of the contents con-tents of the dispatches received although al-though it was stated that there were quite a number from Minister Conger 5 some coining from the Consular officers y and Gen Chalice besides those which came direct The message transmitted p through Minister Wu was entirely deciphered L de-ciphered in the department TUNG CHOW A STRONG PLACE During the course of a conversation between Secretary Root nnd Baron von Sternberg the German Charge dAf faircs Mr Root gained considerable information in-formation concerning the route which has yet to be traversed by the allied armies Baron Sternberg told him that Tung Chow was a very strong place and if the Chinese army should make a stand at this point the international forces would find it difficult to overcome i over-come the forts and walls While It Is not known what resistance has been 1 made or will be made to the advance 1 nt Tung Chow Secretary Root and t other officials would not be surprised to learn of a very serious battle at that place WHERE GERMANS WILL LAND I I It Is expected that the German force now on its way to China will I I land in the vicinity of Lin Yu which is directly east of Peking The advantages of this point arc found In the fact that ice l will not interfere with the going and 4 coming of ships with supplies It Is I also said that the road from Lin Yu to Peking Is much better than that between be-tween Tien Tain and Peking as the ground is higher and the country more suitable for military operations TWENTY MILES FROM PEKING Vord came early in the day to they the-y department that Gen ChalICe had f reached Matow about twenty miles from Peking This occurred Friday or Saturday though the dispatch from 4 Gen Chaffco sent through Admiral i Remey was not sufficiently definite to 1 locate the exact time of reaching Ma tow But in any event three or four days have elapsed since then and there g has been time for a still further advance ad-vance toward the imperial city MESSAGES KEPT SECRET The feeling among officials was shown in the circumspection thrown about all 1 messages relating to China and It was 14 announced both at the State and War departments that any communications from Minister Conger or the United States Consuls concerning affairs in China would not be made public It was explained that thin was in no way 0 due to any desire to keep from the pub cjlc any Information of an Important I character but was based sololy on the fact that the crisis Involved so many possibilities of some hazard to the 800 I Icgationcrs In Peking that the greatest caution must bo observed against disclosures dis-closures which would further Imperil those in danger DEVELOPMENTS OF THE DAY The actual developments of tho day consisted of the Remev dispatch heretofore 1 here-tofore alluded to and one from Consul General Gopdnow at Shanghai The State department declined to make known the contents of the Goodnov dispatch This opened a wide field for b conjecture the most generally accepted view being that Mr Goodnow had advised ad-vised against the plan of delivering the legalloncrs outside the city of Peking The cipher experts were busy wIth a dispatch from Consul Fowler at Che Foo which was so unintelligible that it had to be returned to the telegraph company to be repeated So far as it could be deciphered It appeared to repeat re-peat a message sent by Minister Conger to Fowler telling the latter that the Chinese authorities were seeking to compel the legatloners to leave the city under Chinese escort It Is possible that the message which is quite long will convey additional information when its complications are unraveled SUDDEN CHANGE EXPECTED I With the army at Matow It is felt that any one of several conditions I might be presented In the near future Chinese officials concurred in the belief expressed by the Chinese Minister at London that there would be a speedy and sudden change and peace within the next few weeks On the other hand Baron von Sternberg regards Tung Chow mldwav between Matow and Peking Pe-king as the real battleground and Secretary Sec-retary Root Is Inclined to accept this view Some of the Japanese officials believe that when the allies reach Tung Chow they will find Peking a deserted city ahead of them as it was recalled that these tactics of withdrawal had occurred 1 oc-curred in 18GO when the BritishFrench expedition reached Tung Chow In the absence of all positive information informa-tion as to what the allied armies will do these conjectures from the best posted sources serve to show the various vari-ous serious possibilities forming a part of the present crisis MESSAGES NOT IDENTICAL The French Minister at Peking M Pichons message to the French Foreign office was at first regarded here as identical iden-tical with the last Conger message which the State department has not made public But without disclosing the nature of the Cqnger message the officials made a sufficient comparison Between the PIchon and Conger messages mes-sages to show that they were not Identical iden-tical In language or general statement On the contrary iUwasclearJhat each Minister was forwarding to his Government Govern-ment his own advices on the situation and that there had been no consultation Between the Ministers before these two disn atches wore forwarded While the messages are not alike it Is understood that they agree on considerable of the Information contained |