New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-02
Cermany's Long Intrigue
Drove China Into the War
eestias Sickened of the Imperial System of Spies the
Brutal Methods of the Hohcnzolern Mailed Fist. and
Finally the Insidous Propaganda Against Other Nations
Bv LINDSAY RUSSELL.

at is q disclosure of the character
OF the imperial German government
which is the underlying cause of our
entering into the war;" says Secretary
Lansing. and, In view of this luminous
statement, it is interesting to look into
the character of its methods IN the
Orient. 1t may be that the success at
the start with these methods in China
"a cumbrous, loose-j ointed, Intellectual
and effete empire-was responsible Tor
the Kaiser's radical blunder in applying
them TO the rest of the world, but 1t
is on the whole more probable that our
Secretary of State has laid an unerring
finger on the real cause. Both manlies-
tations lie deep in "the character OF
the imperial government'-that OF the
bully, the self-seeker, the betrayer' the
underhand worker--all of the criminal
type between nations as they are
among individuals.
A declaration of war by the govern
ment of China upon the Empire OF
Germany is, in a naval and military
sense, largely, if not entirely, academic.
II. however. marks the close of strug-
clio against German intrigue In CHINA
which dates really from 1897, when,
with the excuse of the murder by a
Chinese mob of two German (Catholic)
missionaries. the ksiser's land and
naval forces seized Kiao-chau, includ-
ing the town and bay of Tsing-tao,
and soon thereafter took over COM
mercially and politically the entire
province of Shantung-a foreshadowing
in the Far East of the high-handed
brutality, low cunning and utter sell
ishness which have made Germany and
German junker methods detested
twenty years later the world around, TO
the ultimate ruin and destruction OF
Germany-the Hohenzollern Germany
at any rate. &C..
II was on the outset OF the expedition
to accomplish these things that Kaiser
Wilhelm invented the phrase of the
mailed fist of Germany" and ever since
the grabbing hand has been supple
mented and complemented by the rub
Der Sneakers" of the spy and the
underhanded wiles of the German
propaganda all over China.
The outbreak of the Great War IN
Europe in August, 1914, found the
Chinese Republic overrun by German
spies and prcpagandists, preceding and
following upon the bold inroads of the
German traders. They felt serene IN
the belief that Yuan Shih-kai, the
President of the Chinese Republic, was
under their influence, and TO an eX-
tent il was true. But a Nemesis was
pursuing them. When Japan entered
the war and set out to wrest Tsing-tao
from the Germans, Yuan knew that he
could give little help to his German
friends.
Under their pressure at Picking he
laid down a territory in Shangtung, a
sort of No Mans Land, outside which
the japanese were not TO operate, out
as il was wholly arbitrary and design
eddy insufficient for the operations,
the japanese paid no attention to II.
This was Germany's defeat No. !. Inc
capture of Tsing-tao was Germanys
defeat No. ,. The taking over by
Japan Of the German railroad lines
in Shantung was defeat No. 3. To have
left them in German hands would be
to allow a hostile force to operate on
the japanese rear and flank.
Thenceforward German intrigue fell
to at the task of melting enmity. doubt
and suspicion of Japan in Chinese
minds. Some Of the details of this war
of sneaks are described later on. II
was, however. still formidable. Claim
ing TO the uttermost their rights in
a neutral country, they kept up their
war on Japan, singularly enough, man
aging 10 include many missionaries
and the larger part of the British
traders and writers in Northern China
on their side in the propaganda against
Japan. But to no avail.
The fall and death of Yuan not very
long after were Germany's defeat No. 4.
Weakened and worried, the spies still
worked and the German Legation in
trigued and threatened. In Ii Yuan
hung, the successor to Yuan as Presi-
dent, they found a weaker vessel; but
a new light was breaking.
China Feared Isolation
Official Chinadom began to fear that
an isolated China after the war would
be at great disadvantage IN the peace
conferences 10 follow. Hence the
movement which brought about the
break in relations with the German
Empire, and after the late intervening
revolution, with new President and
the old Premier in shaky seats of
power, we see China moving to dec
laration of war which will align it
with Japan. Russia, England, France,
Italy and the United States Of America
While military activity is fairly out
of the question, the test of China's
heart in the war will now come in the
activity she shows in uprooting and
casting out the last traces of German
spydom. German intrigue and incl
dentally German trade.
In 1896, when the great Ii Hung
chang visited Germany, Prince Bis
marck said to him, THE time will
come when Germany will dominate Eu-
rope. England, with all her buster and