The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-20
CAN'T GET TOGETHER ON THE
QUESTION OF INDEMNlTIES
FROM CHINA
THEY ALL WANT THE EARTH
AND THE TOTAL FAR EXCEEDS
THE ABILITY OF THE EN-
PIRE TO PAY
THE ANGLo-RUssIAN DISPUTE
Danger of a Clash Is Believed to
Have Been Averted for the Pres
ent AnyhOw-VOn WnIdersee
at Tien Tsin.

WASHINGTON, March 19.-It is feared
here that the negotiations at Pekin re-
specting indemnities may fail, owing to
the greed of individual nations Mr. Rock
hill, our special commissioner who has
been in close communication by cable
with the state department, has nothing
but discouraging reports to make of this
important branch of the negotiations. 1t
appears that the ministers cannot agree
upon any uniform basis of indemnity,
some of the powers demanding enormous
sums.
In most cases the powers contend for
the right of fixing their own indemnities.
The result is that each power in order
not TO be Outdone, fixes the total Of it's
claims at an enormous figure, far be-
yond anything known to the history OF
indemnity collections When the point
is made that the sum total of these ma
tional claims is far beyond the ability OF
China to pay, some of the nations reply
by processing a willingness to scale down
their claims as soon as the fact of Chi
mas inability is manifested. However, as
another precaution, the same nations
promptly adjust their claims so that the
scaling down pro S, If applied, would
still leave them 18th a total Indemnity
claim at least equal to that of any of the
other nations.
The difficulty encountered in passing
this point in the negotiations is attract
ing more of the attention of the officials
here than the threatened collision be-
tween the allies at Tien Tsin, which, by
the way, thus far has not been the sub
iect of & report to the state department
from Mr. Rockhill, though there is rea-
son to believe that some of the ambas-
sadors here have made it the basis of
unofficial conferences with the secretary
of state.
Won WALDERSEE AT TEN TSIN.
TIEN TSIN. March 19.-Count Won Wal
dersee passed through Tien Tsin today.
BERLIN. March 19-As bearing upon
the nature of Count Won Waldersee's re-
lations to the mutual hostile attitude of
the Russian and British troops at Tien
Tsin, the semi-official Berliner Post pub
fishes the following officially inspired
comminique:
"The expression intervene might
cause q understanding hut as
possibility of serious collision existed.
which would have inspired the Chinese
with an undesirable idea as to tn, unity
of the powers. Count Won WalderSee
mediated. He insisted in the first place
that the litigious parties should with
draw their troops from the contested
ground.
Count Won Waldersees action, how
ever, was merely dictated by military
tary sense to prevent an exhibition of
discreditahle discord and it has nothing
whatever to do with the settlement of
the disputed question which lies outside
of Count Won Waldersee's sphere of COM
petence."
GERMANY'S INTERESTS.
In the course of the debate in the
reichstag today, on the third reading of
the budget, replying to Prince Bis
marck's criticisms of Count Won Bue-
lows recent speech, that the chancellor
insisted too much on Germans interests
III Manchuria, and that Germany's in
terests would not have suffered even If
Kiao-ChOu had not been leased Count
Won Buelow said Germany had the great
est interest in preventing friction be-
tween the powers now negotiating in
China. Moreover, in Eastern Asia, Ger
many had many interests to safeguard.
In Shan-Tung province she had millions
invested. Above ALL Germany had to
insist on adequate compensation being
given for the murder of Baron Won Ket-
teller. That was a question in which the
honor of Germany was engaged and in
which she had vital interest
In the further course'of his speech, the
chancellor added:
81 have left no room for the slightest
doubt that no German political interests
exists in Manchuria, but at the same
time l have stated it must naturally be
our desire that China shall not too seri-
ously diminish her capacity for satisfy