The age-herald., 1901-03-19
BOTH RUSSIA
 AND ENGLAND
 ID WITHDRAW Probable Solution of the Chinese
 TangIe RELATIONS ARE STRAINED It Now Seems Unlikely That
 War Will Result. UNLESS SOME FRACAS OCCURS One Official View Is That the Dispute May Eventually Be Referred To Arbitraton-English News
 papers Warned
UNLESS SOME FRacAs OCCURS

London, March 1S.-On the highest offi- cial authority the Associated Press is au- thorized to announce that the difficulty at Tien Tsn between the Russians and British over the construction of a rail- road siding in territory claimed by both. will probably be solved by the withdrawal of both the British and Russian troops from the ground in dispute.
 There is a disposition here to think too much was made of the Anglo Russian incident at Tien Tsin and a more hope full view of the affair Is taken today. This is aided by the statement in Morrison's dispatch from Pekin yesterday to the London Times, which is taken to mean that the combined efforts of the interested powers are having the effect of causing St. Petersburg to check any tendency to undue aggressiveness on the part of the Russian representatives in China.
 The comments of the afternoon papers here repeat the views of the majority of the morning papers, namely, that diplo- macy will be able to smooth the fric- tion.
 No Official Confirmation. The officials of the British foreign of- | flee have not yet received official confir-
 nation of Russie's alleged back5azZ1A..isis .isis- regard to Manchuria, Tuhestan and \ )ngolia and inquiries on the subject are now being made. at St. Petersburg and Pekin.
 The British Foreign Office is not relax ing it's efforts to secure a more satisfac- tory statement of the intentions of Rus sia but the officials depreciate the Brit ish press agitation on the subject.
 On all sides it is officially and other wise said that Great Britain has not the slightest contemplation of resorting to hostilities against Russia, whatever may be the outcome of the present negotia- tons
 Whatever may be the outcome of the present negotiations while hostilities are out of the question. however, it is not unlikely that diplomatic relations be- tween Great Britain and Russia will be- come strained almost to the breaking point. Possibly British warships may be dispatched to bring pressure to bear up- on Russia, but war will not result unless some fracas, quite unauthorized by Lon don and St. Petersburg, occurs between the opposing forces at Ten Tsin
 Good Authority for Assertion.
 This assertion is based upon exhaus- sive inquiry made by the Associated Press in London. A prominent British official, often the mouthpiece of the gov ernment whose positive makes it unde- sirable that he should be named in this connection said this evening:
 Tt is useless for our newspapers to use provocative language. They forget that we have a great army in South Africa, and that we have no other army, nor the makings of one, elsewhere. It is impos- sible to go to war with Russia"
 A semi-official statement issued this evening to the effect that the much talked-of assurances of the Russian for eign minister, Count Lamsdorff, to Sir Charles Stewart Scott British ambassa- dor at St. Petersburg, were made Febru- ary 6, and evidently referred to the Rus so-Chinese agreement concluded at Port Arthur last November, and not to the Manchurian convention.
 Inquiries at the Chinese legation this afternoon were rewarded by the reply: His excellency has gone to bed,'' which was presumably the celestial equivalent of an assurance that the Chinese minister preferred to say nothing as to the most recent developments. The Japanese lega- ton was equally non-committal.
 It is understood that one official view is that the dispute may eventually be re- ferred to arbitration.