• In the House of Commons on Tuesday the. Prime
Minister stated that General Yang Sen had restored one of the two steamers recently seized on the Yangtze and was apparently about to restore the other. Directly the second vessel was received the way would be clear for opening the promised inquiry into the sinking of the Chinese sampan. So far as we know the sampan, which contained Chinese money, for the payment of the troops, Was sunk accidentally owing to a highly improper attempt by the Chinese to stop and board a British ship. The British offer to deposit a sum of money in. (case the inquir should- go against the British was extremely conciliatory and we hope that the incident may end amicably. on the other hand no satisfaction, from our point of view, was to be derived from the • Prime Minister's statement that no attempt was being made among the Powers to arrive at a common policy for dealing with China. We have written on this subject in our first leading article.
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