The serious dispute between the British Government and that of
Pekin appears to have been finally settled by the convention arranged at Chefoo between Sir Thomas Wade and the great Chinese mandarin Li Hung-chang. It has been agreed that no one shall be put to death—the Government being convinced that the real authors of the outrage would escape—that the Chinese Govern- ment shall pay 200,000 taels (X50,000) in compensation, that lekin or irregular transit duties shall not be levied in the foreign settlements, and that several new ports shall be opened to com- merce. Moreover, a letter of apology for the Yunnan outrage is to be forwarded by special envoy to the Queen, and a code of etiquette is to be drawn up by the Foreign Ministers for their treatment by the Court, and embodied in the Chinese etiquette. The principle of this code is to be that the Ministers shall be treated in Pekin as, they are in other friendly capitals. The con- cessions appear to be considerable, but there is a clause author- ising an expedition from Pekin to India through Thibet which may yet prove a source of trouble.
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