Show GLEARINGUP A MUDDLE Conference That May Cause Joint Note to Be Signed DELAY DUE TO ERRORS Misunderstanding Among Envoys Now Chargeable to Bulls Made by Cable Companies This Caused Minister Conger and Sir Ernest Satow the British Envoy In Peking to Take Opposite Views Although Their Home Governments Were perfectly Agreed I London Dec lSlII Choate the United States Embassador l had a long conference this afternoon regarding the Chlncsel situation with the Secretary Secre-tary oC State for Foreign Affairs the Marquis oC Lansdowne and subsequently subse-quently Henry White secretary of the United States embassy paid a visit to the Foreign onicie The greatest secrecy se-crecy Is maintained as to the outcome of these consultations What could be learned from British aud American sources varied considerably the former for-mer expressing annoyance and anxiety the latter maintaining that nothing serious was developing Some explanation however was gathered by a representative of the Associated Press of the extraordinary tiin le In I which the Chinese legations have recently been mixed up and some reconciliation the contradictory telegrams I egrams that have emanated from Peking Pe-king and various European capitals I It appears that over a week ago the powers came to an agreement to eliminate elimi-nate the word Irrevocable from the Joint note Then when It wan believed that everything had been settl d objections ob-jections Were raised and Great Britain for the sake of harmony although much against her will agreed to insert in-sert the Irrevocable clause In this it Is believed she was supported by the United States Once more thc Joint note seemed on the verge of signature when a misunderstanding misun-derstanding arose In Peking This confused con-fused the Governments and forms the subject of the dispatch from Secretary Hay which Mr Choate transmitted to the Marquis of Lansdowne today As the result of the interview Mr Choate has sent a long cablegram to Secretary Hay in which he attributes the latest misunderstanding to an error In forwarding for-warding instructions an error which occurred presumably through the cable company and which caused Mr Conger Con-ger and Sir Ernest Satow the British Minister in Peking to take opposite views although I their home Governments Govern-ments were perfectly agreed The United States embassy while noncommittal hears that todays conferences con-ferences will clear up the muddle and bring about a signing of the Joint note in Peking within a few da sOn s-On the other hand the British Foreign For-eign office Is not quite so hopeful Officials Offi-cials there profess to be rather at sea as to whether the conditions are to be Irrevocable or othcrwihQ Indications point to their being Irrevocable British officials admit that they gave In under protest and with a distinct reservation that although the demands arc Irrevocable this 1n no way necessitates neces-sitates an enforcement of the demands of European troops Such a course Great Britain cannot and will not agree to Consequently compliance with the Irrevocable clause was somewhat of a farce on the part of Great Britain and this feature of the when case becomes more Interesting taken In conjunction with the statement state-ment authoritatively made here that Great Britain and the United States arc In the same boat in the Joint negotiations negotia-tions |