The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-16
ALLIES MAY Be BEFORE VALLSOF PETIN
Reported From London That the Chinese Can
ital Has Been Reached
In Washington the Tension Is Extreme--News
of Momentous Import Expected
Hourly.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15.-The tension
on the Chinese situation has been tntensa
throughout the day, for 1t Is appreciated
by othcials that the crisis has reached an
acute stage which cannot be continued
many hours without bringing word NJ
mentous import determining either for
good or evil the entire course of events.
1t has been a day of EXTREMIST anxiety
OF watching and waiting, with only mea-
ger and fragmentary information as to
the military and diplomatic phases. One
OF the new developments today. was the
statement that messages are being re-
| ceived from Minister Conger. which ara
not transmitted through any of our offi-
cials in China or through the Chinese
minister here, but directly at the stats
, department These messages come bv
way Of Tsi-Nan. Some of them cannot
be fully deciphered, and for this reason
the statement cannot be definitely made
that the dispatches sent by the giveEn-
ment to Minister Conger are received by
him. So far as the messages have been
deciphered, there is no indication that
Minister Conger received any informa-
ton or dispatches from our state depart
/ ment Nothing could be learned of tha
contents Of the dispatches received, al
| though 1T was stated that there wera
quite a number from Minister Conger.
some coming from the consular officers
! and Gen. Chaffee, besides those which
came direct. The message transmitted
by WI was entirely decipehered in the
state department.
TUNG CHOW IS FORTIFIED.
During the course Of a conversation
by Secretary Root and Baron spreck Won
Sternberg, the German charge d'affaires,
Mr. Root gained considerable information
concerning the route which has yet to be
traversed by the allied armies. Baron
Sternberg told him that Tung Chow was
very strong place, and If the Chinese
| army should make a stand at this point
| the international forces would find 1t
quite difficult to overcome the forts and
walls. While 1t is not known what re-
sistence may have been made or will be
made to the advance at Tung Chow, Sec
retary Root and other officials would not
be surprised to learn Of very serious
battle at that place
It is expected that the German force
now on its way to China Will land in the
vicinity of Lin Yu, which is directly east
Of Pekin. The advantages Of this point
are round in the fact that rice will not
| interfere with the going and coming Of
ships with supplies 1t is also said that
the road from Lin Yu to Pekin is much
better than that between Tien Tsln and
! Pekin, as the ground is higher and the
country more suitable for military opera
| tions.
WITHIN TWENTY MILES.
Word came in ealy today to the navy
| department that Gen. Chaffee had reach
ed Matow, about twenty miles from Pc
kin. This occurred Friday, though the
dispatch from Gen. Chaffee, sent through
ADMIRAL Remey was not sufficiently def
mite to locate the exact time of reaching
Matow. But, in any event, three or four
| days have elapsed since then, and there
has been time for a still further advance
| toward the imperial city. The feeling
among officials was shown in the extreme
circumsepction thrown about all messages
| relating to China, and it was announced,
| both at the state and war departments,
| that any communica tions from Minister
Conger or the United States consuls con-
cerning affairs in China would not be
made public. 1t was explained that this
was in no way due to any desire to keep
from the public information Of an i'm
portant character, but was based solely
on the fact that the crisis involved so
many responsibilities of extreme hazard
to the 500 legahoners in Pekin that the
| greatest caution must be observed against
disclosures which would further imperiI
those in danger.
The actual developments of the day
consisted Of the Remey dispatch hereto
fore alluded to. and one from Consul
| General GoodnOw at Shanghai. The state
| department declined to make known the
contents of the Goodnow dispatch. This
| opened a wide field for conjecture, tho
! most generally accepted view being that
Mr.. Goodnow had advised against the
plan of delivering the legationers outside
| the city of Pekin.