Mr. Sokobin returned to town. and went' to the Commissioner's office while, according to the Chinese account, the aide returned to the yamen to report. From this point forward the foreign and Chinese accounts begin to diverge widely. Mr. Sokobin says that when he had explained the situation to Mr. Chang, the Commissioner, he asked Mr. Chang to go with him to the Tutwmg yamen, but that Mr. Chang said he thought he could do better if he went alone. The Chief of Staff says that his aide had asked Mr. Sokobin to go to the yamen but that Mr. Sokokin had replied that his business was with the Commissioner and not with the yamen.
The Commissioner and the Chief of Staff say that when Mr. Sokobin came to the Commissioner's office he was excited and imply that he was rather rude. The Commissioner says that Mr. Sokobin announced that he would give him (Mr. Chang) three minutes to get to the yamen and secure permission for the cars to start, failing which he would go back and make a start without permission. At all events the Commissioner did go to the yameo and the Chief of Staff refused flatly to permit the cars to proceed. This intelligence the Commissioner then telephoned to Mr. Sokobin who was waiting in the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, whereupon Mr. Sokobin is
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.