Peking, May 11.
The First Secretaries of the British, American, and Japanese Legations yesterday called upon General Wang Chan-yuan, who now claims a hegemony over the Yangtze Valley and the Southwest, to discuss with him the question of pending claims for damage to property during the various civil wars in Central China since 1916. These claims have been accumulating and it began to appear recently. that the Central Government had not the authority to carry on joint investigations upon which an appraisement of damages could be made and that, in this matter as so many others, it would be necessary at last to resort to "the higher authorities" in the provinces, Wang Tuchun received the visitors with his usual geniality, but expressed much surprise when the; stated their business and_ wanted to know why they came to him, the mere Governor, when they were accredited to and had access to the supreme authorities in Peking. In reply to this pleasantry the diplomats said that they had already taken the various claim questions up with the Peking Government and were doing nicely, but thought things might be expedited if the Tuchun were to ce-operate with them. Wang Chan-yuan thereupon assured them that while he would be delighted to help he had absolutely no authority in any matter except that delegated to him by his respected superiors in Peking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.