CHINA'S PROPOSAL

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 24, 28 January 1919, Page 7

CHINA'S PROPOSAL

REVISION OF 1915 TREATY,

(Received January 28, 10 a.m.)

NEW YORK, 27th January. Aocording to the Washington correspondent of the New York Times Chinese officials have announced that China will ask at the Peace Conference for a revision of the Japanese-Chinese Treaty of 1915, including the Twentyone Demands.

Despatches from Buenos Aires state that anti-Jewish agitations are spreading in South America.

The nature and effect of the treaty referred to in the above cable message was set out by Mr. F. A. M'Kenzie in fie Daily Mail Year Book, 1916, as follow :— It has bee*n for some years evident to many who closely follow Far Eastern affairs that the deliberate purpose of Japan is to acquire supremacy over Eastern Asia, and to declare a Monroe doctrine for that region, excluding European Powers from ownership of territory there. In January, 1915, the Japanese Government presented a series of twentyono demands to China. These were enveloped in the utmost secrecy; it was insisted that China should not communicate them to others, and a partial list only was revealed by Japan to the Great Powers. The Japanese demands covered, in the main, the following points : China was to make no concession of territory in Shantung, or along the coast, to any other Power, except Japan, the rights given by the Chinese to Germany in Shantung were to be transferred to Japan; the lease of Port Arthur and the Manchurian railway agreements were to be extended to 99 years; Japanese were to be given the right to buy land and to settle in Southern Manchuria and in Eastern Mongolia, and Japan was to receive a number of exclusive mining and railway rights, particularly in Fukien and in the Yangtsze Valley; foreign advisers were not to be engaged without consultation with the Japanese Government; railway concessions were not t<j bo granted to ether Powers, or loans raised on the security of duties or taxes; without the consent of Japan. Drastic and far-reaching as these requirements were, they were surpassed "by the fifth section olj. the demands—a section not at first disclosed to other Powers. These stipulated that the Chinese Government was'to engage influential Japanese as political-financial, political, and military advisers, that Japanese were to have the right to own land in the interior of China for hospitals, temples, and schools; that the police in leading centres were to be placed under joint Chinese and Japanese administration; that China was to buy arms from Japan; that Japan was to have further railway rights; that it was to have a veto on foreign capital coming into the province of Fukieu, and that Japanese Buddhists were to have the right to preach in China. These final clauses obviously would have reduced China to the position of a vassal State. The Chinese Government was placed in a very unhappy position. It had no army adequate to defend its rights. Although the Japanese claims conflicted at many paints with European treaty obligations, the European Powers were ia no position to make themselves effectively heard. The one interested nation still free, the United States, might safely be expected to follow its usual course : that is, to submit to any wrong by a strong'nation rather than go to war to defend its rights. The Chinese Government at first absolutely _ refused to discuss the demands embodied in Group 5. Long negotiations proceeded on the other points. Meanwhile a _ strong cry was raised in Japan for active measures to enforce the Japanese claims. Troops were poured into Shantung and Manchuria, and open threats of force were employed. The Chinese appealed \to friendly Powers. It is understood that England made certain representations to her Ally. On 7th May the Japanese Minister at Pekin presented in person the demands in modified form. There was to be no more argument. They were to be accepted before the evening of 9th May, without modification, or—war. The main modification in the revised clauses was the withdrawal of Group 5, "to be reserved for future discussion," with the exception of the Fukien claim. The Chinese Government, knowing that further resistance was vain, accepted the JapiSiese terms under strong protest. "The wound is extremely serious and the pains excruciating," wrote Juan Shlh K'ai, in an official mandate. "We are impotent, and we suffer the consequences. We should develop our resources to acquire strength, and we should not be led astray by wild fancies."