JAPAN AND CHINA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19714, 13 August 1927, Page 10

JAPAN AND CHINA.

The rapt attention given in the House to Mr. Wilford's recital of certain clauses in Japan's demands on China in 1915 is not easily justified. His statement contained nothing that was not a matter of public knowledge while the negotiations between the two countries were proceeding, and as a matter of fact most of the allegedly secret demands were embodied in the agreement signed on May 25 of that year and duly notified. The progress of the negotiations, point by point through the twenty-five conferences held, was made public authoritatively in the press of the world, and China's objections to sundry specific demands, these objections being given the form of a counter-draft to Japan's ultimatum, were the subject of foreign comment. Japan waived some of these demands; but those relating to the employment of her advisers, the right of her subjects to own land in China, the use of her police (at least as instructors) in some Chinese centres, and the prior approach to Japan in connection with means to construct specified railway and harbour works in a seacoast region of strategic importance to that country, were all included in the compromise. All these details were categorically published at the time of the agreement's signature. That Japan contemplated availing herself to the utmost of the advantage gained by the capture of Kiaochao in November of 1914 was no secret. Nor was there any secret about the attitude of some foreign Powers in support of China's determination not to make concessions to Japan violating Chinese treaties with them. Japan's knowledge of this attitude had -an effect in producing a second Japanese draft of demands revised in a few details ; but the main demands, including practically all named by Mr. Wilford, were pressed and accepted. To say that some Americans' discovery and circulation of the cited "secret" clauses led to tension between Japan and the United States is crediting them with an astuteness beyond their deserts. There were other and more serious reasons for the tension. Mr. Wilford was on surer ground in his general description of Japan's rapid rise to influence in the East and her aggressive policy there. The demands on China in 1915, and those of minor importance following; the Chcng-ehiatung affair in the next year, were symptomatic of that: and this was well understood at the time.