THE COLONIST. WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1919. THE SHANTUNG SETTLEMENT.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 151036, 30 July 1919, Page 4

THE COLONIST. WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1919. THE SHANTUNG SETTLEMENT.

The Japanese standpoint on the vexed : question of th& Shantung: settlement was explained by Viscount Ishii, the late Japanese Ambassador, at Washington, in an interview with the "Christian Science Monitor" last month. The Ambassador touched also upon) other subjects bearing on the relations of the United States and Japan. He denied that there was any real conflict of interest, and proclaimed himself an optimist about the relations between the two countries. Japan, he said, is in accord with the United States Avith regard to the policy of the open-door and equal opportunity in China, and in Siberia also. The only .important question now is with regard to China, especially with regard to the Shantung question. Discussing the previous position of Japan in relation to the peninsula, Viscount Ishii said that in 1898 China granted to Germany a 99-ye r leasehold of Kiao-Chau, in the province of Shantung. The lease included the Bay of Kiao-Chau' and its surrounding district,, together with mining concessions along the Tsinan Railway, which railway also was granted to Germany. Thus Germany acquired from China two kinds of concessions, first, the territorial leasehold, and second, some concessions of an .economic character. | After Japan had driven the Germans from the Shantung Peninsula, following a two months' siege, Japan took the initiative and offered to surronder |to China the German leasehold, upon the transfer to Japan, by right of conquest, of the leased territory being consented to by Germany in the Peace Conference. Japan's voluntary offer to restore it to China was, of course, of the greatest advantage to China, as China was entirely powerless to recover, by her own means, her territorial sovereignty in Shantung for 75 years more. The treaty of 1915 placed China in a position to recover this important advantage without sacrificing either blood or treasure. Therefore, the treaty of 1915 was not an unfair transaction, but was exceptionally advantageous, from China's point of view. So far as the territorial integrity of China is concerned, it is for these reasons entirely in favour of China. There | remains the second kind of concession, the economic concession, which Japan was to retain in her hands, as in th^ days of German occupation. Here again Japan's goodwill towards China went so far as to offer to withdraw her civil and military administration from the railway zone, by withdrawing troops and police forces, and making the Shantung-Tsinan Railway a joint enterprise of Japan and China, instead of an absolutely foreign administration, as it was under the Gorman occupation. That, said Viscount Ishii, was the purport of the accord of September, 1918. Thus China acquired, by the treaty of 1915, the recovery of her entire participation in the administration of the former German railway from Kiao-Chau to Tsinan. When Japan took possession of Kiao-Chau by force of arms in 1914, China remained neutral. Japan's action in Shantung even met with protest from China. Since November, 1914. Japan has occupied Kiao-Chau .and the railway zone from the port to Tsinan, the capital of the province, by right of conquest. Three years after, ward, i.e., in 1917, China declared war against Germany. But the declaration of war could not possibly change the state of things which had existed since 1914. Therefore, the Chinese argument that China's declaration of war against Germany had, ipso facto, annulled the leasehold treaty of 1898, had no legal ground, in view of the fact that Japan had, three years before China's declaration of war, replaced Germany in Shantung. The Ambassador indicated that Shantung would be returned to China immediately after the details of the procedure had been fixed. Reverting to American relations: with Japan, Viscount Ishii declared that with the principle of the open door and equal opportunity, not only in China, but in Siberia also, Japan is in hearty accord with the United States, and, with the sincere and hearty co-operation oi these two Powers, he could see no possible cause of conflict between theni in the affairs of the Orient.