The Truth About Shantung - - MORAL, LEGAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ASPECTS - ' China Robbed to Save League Japan, the Prussia of the East The Tragedy of Korea Japan Closing the “Open Door” Japanese Monroe Doctrine Dream of Asiatic Empire China Asks Only Justice NEW YORK, AUGUST, 1919 CHINA SOCIETY 506 FIFTH AVE. new YORK, U.S.A. The Shantung clauses in the Peace Treaty SECTION VIII SHANTONG ARTICLE 156. Germany renounces, in favor of Japan, all her rights, title, and privileges — particularly those concerning the territory of Kiaochow, railways, mines and submarine cables — w'hich she acquired in virtue of the Treaity concluded by her with China on March 6, 1898, and of all other arrangements re- lative to the Province of Shantung. All German rights in the Tsingtao-Tsinanfu Railway, in- cluding its branch lines, together with its subsidiary property of all kinds, stations, shops, fixed and rolling stock, mines plant and material for the exploitation of the mines, are and remain acquired by Japan, together with all rights and privileges attaching thereto. The German State submarine cables from Tsingtao to Shanghai and from Tsingtao to Chefoo, with all the rights, privileges and properties attaching thereto, are similarly acquired by Japan, free and clear of all charges and en- cumbrances. ARTICLE 157. The movable and immovable property owned by the German State in the territory of Kiaochow, as well as all the rights which Germany might claim in consequence of the works or improvements made or of the expenses incurred by her, di- rectly or indirectly, in connection with this territory, are and remain acquired hy Japan, free and clear of all charges and encumbrances. ARTICLE 158. Germany shall hand over to Japan within three months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, the archives, registers, plans, title-deeds and documents of every kind, wherever they may be, relating to the administration, whether civil, military, financial, judicial or other, of the territory of Kiaochow. Within the same period Germany shall give particulars to Japan of all treaties, arrangements or agreements relating to the rights, title or privileges referred to in the two preced- ing articles. 2 In order that the American people may kfiow the facts in the Shantung contro- versy from a Chinese standpoint, the China Society of America has requested the Chinese Students’ Alliance of the United States to prepare a statement for the American public. This Alliance is the official organiza- tion of the sixteen hundred Chinese stu- dents in American institutions of learn- ing, and their membership is fairly repre- sentative of the best patriotic sentiment of the Republic of China. We respectfully submit this memorial for the thoughtful and impartial consider- ation of liberty-loving Americans who be- lieve in a square deal for China and a fair hearing for China’s cause before the court of American public opinion. Amer- ica must not be “particeps criminis” in the Shantung tragedy. ANDREW B HUMPHREY, Director, China Society of America, 505 Fifth Avenue, New York City. To the People of the United States: It is the earnest hope of the Chinese Students Alliance that the United States Senate refuse to ratify Articles 156, 157 and 158 of the Paris Peace Treaty, the part purporting to take Kiaochow and the valuable economic rights in Shantung from China and give them to Japan. Will you help us by using your influence to that end? China declared war against Germany August 14, 1917. That act legally cancelled all treaties with Germany, her concessions of railroads and mines in Shantung province and the 99 year lease of Kiaochow. The titles reverted immediately and absolutely to China, from which country they had been extorted by Prussian force. Official notice of these facts was given by China in strict accord- ance with international law and was duly acknowl- edged by the great powers including Japan. The Peace Conference had no more moral or legal right to deprive China of these things than it has to take California from the United States and give it to Japan. As the United States asked China to de- clare war against Germany, how can your country now honorably help despoil China by officially rati- fying this grossly illegal, unjust and offensive treaty provision? Please consider these facts: China Robbed To Save League 1. The American Peace Mis.sion does not at- tempt to justify this spoliation of China, the trust- ing friend and war-associate of the United States, on moral or legal grounds. The only reason given is that it was necessary “to save the League of 4 Nations”. Japan would not help form a League of Nations unless given outright and unconditionally everything Germany had possessed in the Shantung province. Japan must have the right to oppress and exploit 86,000,000 people of a different race against their expressed will and to dominate the most im- portant and sacred province of China, the cradle of Chinese civilization and the birthplace of Con- fucius, the hallowed shrine of 400,000,000 Chinese. Is that self-determination? Is that justice? Is it a safe and wise action? It is as if the peace con- ference had decided to return Palestine, the birth- place of Christ and the sacred shrine of the Christ- ian world, to the possession of the moslem Turks. Of course it will cause war, just as w'hen France was robbed of Alsace-Lorraine : 400,000,000 liber- ty-loving people will not forever subm.it to cruel Oppression and dishonest exploitation by an ir- responsible, autocratic government dominated by the military caste of Japan. 2. The New York Times of June 5, 1919, pub- lished a Paris dispatch from the Chicago Tribune’s correspondent in France, which read : “^T am told on the highest authority that Shantung was sacri- ficed to Japan only after Chinda, Makmo and Matsui had made an open threat that refusal would throw Japan into a “Teutonic Alliance”. Italy, on the other hand, had too much loyalty and honor to threaten to desert the Allies and join the common enemy Avith which they were still at war. Italv asked only for enemy territory, not for the property of a co-ally. 3. If the bribing of Japan to support the League of Nations could be morally justified, would it not have been more just and honest to give her some- thing belonging to the United States instead of the acknowledged property of America’s confiding friend and war-associate, China? We can not be- lieve the American Senate or people will desert China in this supreme crisis and morally outrage and offend 400,000,000 Chinese by officially sanc- tioning this crime against humanity and justice. Japan, the Prussia of the East Japan boasts that she always scrupulously keeps her treaties inviolate. But again and again her treaties with other countries have been shameless- ly broken and treated as ‘‘scraps of paper”. Japan, whose officers were largely trained in Germany, is the Prussia of the East, as the following historic facts prove : (a) Japan, equally cruel and ruthless but more clever and subtle than Germany, created in secret a great army and navy and in 1894 attacked peace- ful and unarmed China without notice. She did the same thing again in the same way, when she first attacked the Russian warships and then later de- clared war. It is the Prussian system adopted and elaborated by Japan. The Tragedy of Korea (b) On August 26, 1894, when attacking China, Japan concluded an alliance with Korea “to main- tain the independence of Korea on a firm footing,” 6 etc. In the Russo-Japanese agreement of April 25, 1898, it was stipulated that “they (the two govern- ments) recognize definitely the sovereignty and en- tire independence of Korea and pledge themselves mutually to abstain from all direct interference in the internal afifairs of that country”. (c) The pious preamble of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1912 read in part; “The governments of Great Britain and Japan actuated solely by a desire to maintain the status quo and general peace in the Extreme East, being moreover, specially in- terested in maintaining the territorial integrity of the Empire of China and the Empire of Korea, and in securing equal opportunities in those countries for the commerce and industry of all nations, here- by agree”, etc. Article 1 of this treaty says “the High Contracting Parties, having mutually recog- nized the independence of China and Korea, declare themselves to be entirely uninfluenced by any ag- gressive tendencies in either country”. (d) In the Protocol signed by Japan and Korea at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war, it was stipulated that “The Imperial Government of Japan definitely guarantees the independence and terri- torial integrity of the Korean Empire”. Notwith- standing these sacred treaty pledges, Japan con- trolled and directed the. external relations and af- fairs of Korea in 1905, in 1907 prevented Korean representatives from getting a hearing at The Hague, and on August 27, 1910, formally annexed Korea. Korea is now in revolt against the horrors of a Japanese military despotism that, true to its Prus- sian teacher, can gather forty unarmed and peace- 7 able old, men, women and children into a church building- ostensibly “to listen to instructions,” and then murder them in cold blood with shot and bayonets and then burn the building to hide the crime. And your American missionaries in Korea are arrested and imprisoned by the Japanese for showing Christian sympathy and humanity for these persecuted people. Japan Closing the “Open Door” (e) The Peace Treaty of 1905 binds Japan and Russia “to restore entirely and completely to the exclusive administration of China all portions ot Manchuria now in the occupation or under the con- trol of (their troops), with the exception of the territory above mention (the Liaotung Peninsula) . . . not to obstruct any general measure common to all countries which China may take for the de- velopment of the commerce and industry of Man- churia”. (f) Japan has since developed her South Man- churian Railroad into a great colonizing system, policing and administering the surrounding regions by calling them “railway zones” and operating the adjoining mines and giving preferential rights, re- bates and privileges to Japanese subjects to the exclusion of other foreigners and the natives. Japan refused to permit China to build the Fakumenn Railway and the Chinch ow-Aigun line. In viola- tion of her sacred treaty pledges and professions of the “open door” for China, Japan is rapidly making a second Korea of Manchuria and any time may throw off the mask and formally annex that vast and rich territory 8 (to) Japan is closing the “open door” of China to other countries, and to the Chinese also, just as fast as she can grab and swallow the successive mouthfuls within her reach. Japan will continue to gorge herself upon China until her one-fourth of all the people in the world turn sharply to free themselves forever from political and economic bondage to a detested and cruel alien race. This she is doing in gross violation of all her treaty pledges to uphold the “open door” and territorial integrity and independence of China, including the Root-Takahira and the Lansing-Ishii agreements. How long will civilized nations stand idly by and hold Japan’s robes while she robs a temporarily helpless people? Japanese Monroe Doctrine (h) Japan has already robbed China of Formosa and Korea and their 25,000,000 people. She drove Russia from Port Arthur and. then occupied it. Man- churia, with its 20,000,000 Chinese, is being “Benev- olently assimilated” into a Japanese province. She has made threatening advances toward Mongolia. Now Shantung and its 36,000,000 Chinese fall under her policy of penetration and gradual absorp- tion. Japan has recently declared that she would return Kiaodhow in full sovereignty to China if she were permitted to establish an exclusive settle- ment in Kiaochow and retain all the valuable econ- omic rights in Shantung. But it must be under- stood that China has never surrendered her sover- eignty over Kiaochow to any party. Article 1 of the convention entered into between China and 9 Germany on March 6, 1898, specifically stipulated that China reserved to herself all rights of sovereign- ty over the German leased territory of Kiaochow. It is therefore delusive for Japan to make such a declaration. And it would be meaningless for Japan to return Kiaochow to China conditional on the es- tablishment of an exclusive Japanese settlement in Kiaochow and the retention of the valuable econo- mic rights in Shantung. To grant to Japan these important privileges in Shantung would be giving her a decisive “strangle-hold” upon the political, economic and complete military control of the whole province. We need only to examine into Japan’s record in South Manchuria in order to ap- preciate the far-reaching consequences of the Shan- tung clauses in the Peace Treaty. In January 1915 secretly and by threats Japan imposed her notorious twenty-one demands upon China, virtually involving the political, economic and military domination of the latter country. She hinted at war if China even dared tell the truth to the world. She is attempting to monopolize the railroads, mines, resources and commerce of China to the exclusion of all other foreign countries. Japan demands that China employ influential Jap- anese as political, financial and military advisers ; that it cede or lease no territory to any coitntry but Japan; that it have Japanese police the import- ant cities and towns of China ; that half of all muni- tions be bought of Japan; that Japanese be allowed to freely travel, reside, trade and own land and other property and operate mines in Manchuria practically without responsibility to Chinese laws. 10 All this is what Japan considers to be her Oriental Monroe Doctrine. Dream of Asiatic Empire (i) Japan’s annexation of Korea and her aggres- sion on China clearly indicate that she is seeking to establish a great Asiatic Empire under the Mika- do. If she should realize her ambition Japan may bring under her sway half of all the people on the earth. In absolute control of the limitless natural resources of Asia and an inexhaustible supply of good labor compelled to work for nominal pay, Japan would be in a position to produce cheaper than other nations and thus ultimately largely monopolize the markets and wealth of the world and destroy the prosperity of other countries. (j) That dream to aspire is as real to Japan as was Germany’s dream of world conquest. And it may be accomplished, just as Germany came near success, because other nations closed their eyes to current events and refused to believe any people capable of entertaining such daring ambitions. But China, at least, realizes her peril and understands Japan’s deadly aims. China will never submit until utterly crushed in a war that will make the Europ- ean war appear like a skirmish. This is why the world’s greatest war is likely to be in Asia. (k) Should Japan succeed in subjecting China and in organizing production and begin its con- quest for the world’s trade, it would be possible for her to create and support a great army of perhaps ten or twenty million men for use in furthering her designs. Would not this logically lead to an at- II tempt by that ambitious militaristic autocracy to complete its dream of glory by the armed conquest of the balance of the world? If the human race is ever menaced by the so-called “yellow peril” it Avil) be after China’s light of liberty has been extin- guished and her 400,000,000 people have been put in bondage to imperial Japan. China Asks Only Justice The United States won the affectionate regard and confidence of China by its act of justice and common honesty in the Boxer indemnity matter and by other friendly acts. We are now struggling heroically, in spite of Japanese intrigue and opposi- tion, to establish and maintain “ a government of the people, by the people, for the people” in the Orient. We desire only justice, a square deal and a fair opportunity. If Japan must have Kiaochow and the valuable economic rights in Shantung, and China is to be forced to enter upon the military path to regain her lands, freedom and independence, let it be said at least that the republic of Washington and Lincoln did not stain its hands with the life- blood of a sister republic. ; , (Signed) FENG HUA HUANG, President, Chinese Students Alliance. Livingston Hall, Columbia University, New York City, August 1, 1919. 12