It is alleged in an American telegram that Ministers in
China have at last,been able to agree as to the protocol, and the new duties will therefore be collected from October. The un- expected British resistance is said to have been directed only against a clause which seemed to allow any individual. State to sell its claim for territory, and the absurd arrangement under which in the Committee which will safeguard payment of the ,indemnity all Powers will vote alike. A compromise was, as usual, arrived at, and the signatures were secured. We shall see whether the money, which is the only advan- tage obtained, will be forthcoming, and meanwhile the Court has refused to return to Pekin, the eighteen hundred men left to guard the Legations are said to be too few, and the common Chinese are reported to be showing signs of hostility to the whites. No idea of the Ambassadors following the Court appears to be entertained, nor can we hear of any new effortsto obtain information as to its- policy. When the next catastrophe occurs, which should be in about three years, that is in 1904, when the first instalment of the indemnity falls due, it will probably be found that the Lega- tions are in as deep a fog as they were when Bishop Favier for the first time shook their previously immovable optimism.
