From Rodney Gilbert, Peking, July 14.
A story given out in Nanchang-fu. presumably officially, about Tuchun Ts'ai Cheng-hsun's prohibition of a visit from an Amer! can river gunboat to his pro capital, has seriously annoyed the American authorities. The Chinese version of the incident is that the Tuchun, or Tuli as he calls himself, prohibited the visit. and that when the American Consul-general in Hankow asked for permission for the Villalobos to navigate the Poyang Lake and the Kan river, it was refused.
As a matter of fact, permission was never asked. for the simple reason that no permission is re quired for any foreign gunboat in China to visit' any inland port, with or without official _notification, If the American Consular authorities wrote the Tuli a letter advising him of the coming of the Villalobos, it was simply a superficial courtesy design' duce the officers and facilitate friendly intercourse between them and the officials, The Villalobos did not reach Nanchang, but turned back into the Yargtze; not he-cause of the Tuli's prohibition. but because, like most of America's antique river patrol boats, it drew too much water to get across the lake. The Tuli simply made use of this contretemps to give himself airs and to pretend that he, in his majesty. had forbidden the approach of a foreign war vessel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.