The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1019. THE SHANTUNG QUESTION.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 222, 18 September 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1019. THE SHANTUNG QUESTION.

For the cause that lacks assistanoe, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future tit the distance, And the good that tee can do.

"It is understood that the United States has asked Japan to fix the date at which, she will return Shantung to China." This cabled item, if it is to be accepted as authentic, is the first news we have received intimating that the American Government is prepared to take a definite stand about Japan's position in China. But in the first place it must be observed that there is nothing menacing or "unfriendly" in the question that has just been transmitted from Washington to Tokyo. For in suggesting to Japan that sooner or later she must evacuate Shantung the American Government is merely drawing attention to the solemn pledge that Japan gave to China ■when she entered the war. In August, 1914, Okuma, the Japanese Prime Minister, declared "to the people of America and of the world" that Japan had no ulterior motive in taking sides with the Allies, "no desire to secure more territory, no thought of depriving China or other peoples of anything they now possess." It is true that in 1915 Japan forced China to sign a treaty which in effect transferred Shantung to the Japanese. But so far as President Wilson and his people are concerned they may fairly claim that all they have to go upon officially is the solemn assurance of disinterestedness offered by Japan when she came into the war, and they arc therefore entirely justified in asking Japan when and under what circumstances she will be prepared to make good her pledge.

But unfortunately there aro several | other factors that enter into the rituat'on. It has been frequently stated, and never officially denied, that President! Wilson did not know of the secret ag-ee-ment between Britain and Japan, till the Peace Conference began to consider the distribution of Germany's Pacific possessions, and he was then informed that these had been provisionally divided between Britain and Japan in accordanc; with a compact transferring to Japan Germany's rights in Kiaochau and Shantung. At first, the and his colleagues strongly opposed the ratification of this secret bargain, and it was only when Japan threatened to withdraw from the Conference altogether that he gave way. That is to say, American delegates were all impr I by the argument of the Japan at ruvoya that if the Allies refused to acknowledge the treaty of 191S, because it was imposed on China by force, then they must equally repudiate all the international compacts that the great Powers s ad from time to time compelled China to accept against her will. Under these circumstances the President, apparently rather to the surprise of Colonel House and the rest of the American delegate-, withdrew his opposition; but it appears that he had in the meantime, extracted from the Japanese envoys "an| unofficial agreement to return the political rights in Shantung after a decent interval." This is, of course, 1 painfully indefinite, but considering all the facts it certainly justifies the Presi-j dent in authorising a polite inquiry as ! to Japan's immediate intentions in the Far East and China's prospects of seeingl the last of her uninvited guests at Kiaochatij

One object we have in drawing attention to this topic again is to suggest to our readers -that President Wilson should not be blamed for acquiescing as he did in what was, so far as the Peace Conference was concerned, an accomplished fact. Naturally the contrast between the principles' laid down in the Points" and the recognition of Japan's claim to Shantung in the Peace terms has provided the President's enemies with very useful material for their campaign. But it must ho remembered that much of the opposition which the treaty and the covenant of the League are now meeting in America is purely partisan in character and origin. It is one of the worst of the world's misfortunes just now that in Britain and the Dominions, France, Italy, and America the terms of Peace have been flung into the arena of party strife, and it is only fair to President Wilson for this reason to discount heavily much of the bitter and vehement criticism to which he has been subjected. It is, for example, a significant fact that several of the leading Republicans who have denounced the President for accepting the Shantung, settlement have supported Italy's claim to Dalmatia and Fiume, though from the standpoint of ethical and political prin-l ciple one bargain was just as indefensible! as the other. There seems to be no: doubt that the President held out against the acceptance of Japan's terms as long as he could, and deskted onlyl when he found that Japan was likely | to withdraw from the Conference, and so imperil his cherished League of Nat : on_ scheme. And President Wilson knows that he still has the moral force of American public opinion solidly behind him when he intimates to Japan that, apai;t from all secret promises and enforced guarantees, she must sooner or later redeem her promise not to aggrandise herself at China's expense, under! penalty of earning the just condemnation of the civilised world. We believe that eventually the Japanese will see the practical wisdom of accepting the Presi-

dent's suggestion. In the meantime, we agree with the "New York Globe"—by no means an ardent admirer of the President—that "the Chinese will not be saved nor the Japanese reformed by misrepresentation's Which have their origin in the personal and partisan politics of America."