London, Sept. 6.
The letter of Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce, in which he was reported to have refuted the American contention as to free—tolls for American coastwise vessels, merely stated that he was making representations to the United States. The remainder was oomment by the Secretary of the Chamber, but the reporters thought it was a continuation of the letter.
An interesting sequel to the mistake has arisen in the fact that Professor Johnson, the special Commissioner on Panama traffic studying the finance of the scheme, strongly bears out what he believed Sir Edward Grey's arguments, He points out that the United States will have about ten per cent. of the tonnage, consequently the exemption of American ships will men an additional ten per cent. on the tolls to be paid by Great Britain and other foreign nations.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.