PREFACE AFTER the war, the attention of the world will more and more shift to China and the Far East. The greatest potential market of the world lies there: the greatest need for industrial and economic development is there. The Far East, in general, and China, in particular, have been profoundly affected by the war: they will be even more deeply influenced during the peace which is to follow. All of the great powers have financial interests in China; after the war, these interests will come into sharp competition and rivalry. In their relations with China and with each other, the nations will face two alternatives: on the one hand, a policy leading to an imperialism and oppression which eventually will endanger the dearly-bought worldpeace: on the other, a course of action based on international justice and the development of a democracy in the Far East that will be safe for the world. These alternatives in Asia are, and will be, the same as those which the world is facing in Europe today: the writer believes they should be viewed in the light of the principles for which the larger part of mankind is now fighting and that unless this is done, on the Eastern horizon will surely gather the dark clouds of another world-storm. In this volume accordingly, the author who has lived in China for the past three years has tried to trace the more recent development of this largest of the Asiatic nations, indicating some of the problems which it is now facing, especially as they appear against the background of the world-war, and attempting to point out some of the ultimate issues to which these problems, if they remain unsolved, will lead. To these issues the world at large cannot remain indifferent; and the attempt has been made in this volume to present as fairly and clearly as possible the facts of the present trans-Pacific situation. (Throughout the volume, quotations have been made from original documents and statements of the press, in order to avoid, as far as possible, any subjective coloring of the facts. Further, in the interests of international harmony and good-will, the more extreme and less characteristic utterances of the press and of publicists of the nations involved, have been omitted. To this sit uation in the Far East, it is hoped that the standards and ideals formulated by the free peoples of the world will be applied; and the writer believes that in the application of these standards and ideals will be found a solution and the only solution of problems which are of momentous consequence for the rest of the world. The author desires to express his grateful obligation to Professor F. Wells Williams, of Yale University, and to Dr. John E. Williams, Vice-President of Nanking University, who have given helpful advice, and made valuable criticisms of the manuscript. To the Peking Gazette, formerly under the able editorship of Mr. Eugene Chen, the author is indebted for many excerpts from contemporaneous documents and articles of value. Acknowledgment is made of the permission of D. Appleton & Co. to use the summary of Treaties Concerning the Integrity of China and Korea, and The Maintenance of the Open Door which appears in Dr. Hornbeck's volume, Contemporary Politics in the Far East; and the permission of Dodd, Mead & Co. for the use of the translation of The Memorandum of the Black Dragon Society, contained in Mr. PutnamWeale's book, The Fight for the Republic in China. Some of the material in this book was originally published in the Current History Magazine of the New York Times, and in the Evening Telegram of Portland, Oregon; acknowledgment is made of the courteous permission of the publishers to use this in the present volume. In the absence of the author in China, Dr. D. Johnson Fleming has kindly consented to supervise the publication of the book and for his willingness to undertake this task the writer is grateful. In conclusion, the author wishes to express his appreciation of the services of Miss G. D. O'Neill and her co-workers, of Pasadena, in preparing the manuscript for the press, and his gratitude for the courtesies of his publishers. Westmoreland Place, CHAPTER TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE PAGE THE LANSING-ISHII AGREEMENT BETWEEN AMERICA AND JAPAN CONCERNING CHINA 102 THE CHINESE-JAPANESE MILITARY AGREE- |