The daily times., 1919-09-24
SHANTUNG ARRANGEMENT DOES
NOT PLEASE HIM. HE SAYS,
BUT WILL WORK OUT.
LEAGUE WILL RIGHT AFFAIR
Our Representative Will Have Power
to Call Case to Attention of All
Powers-cordiaI Greeting
at the Pacific.
(By Mount Clemens News Bureau)


Aboard President Wilson's Special
Train.-The most serious opposition
that he has encountered on his Allan
tic to Pacific tour presented itself to
President Wilson in San Francisco,
the metropolis of the state represent
ed in the senate by Hiram w. john
son. But once again, as has always
been the case, the logic of the chief
executive and his forceful eloquence
won the plain people, regardless of
how their political chieftain stands.
The ordinary citizenry of that part,
of California is for the league Of ma
tions and for the quick ratification Of
the peace treaty with the league in
clusion.
Many think that Woodrow Wilson
and Hiram Johnson will be the con-
testants in 1920 for the presidency of
the United States, but a majority of
those who are forwarding the candi-
dacy of California's favorite son wish
that he had not made the league his
issue, or now that he has done so,
they wish he would drop it.
Pacific Coast Wants Peace.
same as in the middle west and the
east, the people want a peace right
now, a peace that will be permanent,
and they want to get things settled
and start in doing business.
Because the Pacific coast is more
interested in Japan than is any other
section which the president has visit
ed he has devoted the greater part of
his early addresses in California to
the question of Shantung. He admit
ted that the settlement in regard to
that peninsula was not to his liking,
but asserted it was the best settle
ment that could be effected when he
was dealing with the other great pow
ers in Paris.
81 said to my Japanese colleagues
on the other side of the sea, and
therefore I am at liberty to say to
you, that 1 am not satisfied with the
settlement" the president told the
audiences on his first day in San
Francisco. ST think it ought to be
different. But when gentlemen pro-
pose to cure it by striking that clause
out of the treaty, or by ourselves
Withholding adherence to the treaty,
they propose an irrational thing"
History of Shantung Incident.
The president told some of the his
tory of the Shantung incident. In
1898, he explained, China ceded the
territory to Germany, upon the de-
mand of that empire because some
German missionaries had been killed
there "They made an excuse of re-
ligion," he declared. Then Russia
took port and then England and
then France. When the Russo-Japan-
ese war developed Japan conquered
Port Arthur.
America might have had one of the
Chinese ports, also, Mr.. Wilson ex-
planned, but President Mckinley be-
Ieved that inasmuch as their doors
were open to our commerce, we did
not want one and at the same time
we need not object to the other pow
ers having theirs.
When the great war of 1914 came,
the president said, it was imperative
that the Pacific ocean be kept clear
of German shipping and that the Ger
man possessions in the far east be
conquered 1t was up to Japan, he
said, to do these things. And Japan
did She took Shantung and kept it,
that being her reward-by reason of
treaty she had with England and
France-for her share in the war.
"Observe this" the president said,
in explaining the incident, 1--WE are not
taking this territory away from China,
as some gentlemen have asserted, but
we are taking it away from Germany.
Germany, not China, held Shantung
before this war. 1t was German
rights, not Chinese rights, that were
ceded to Japan by the treaty with
England and France.
Shantune Will BE Returned.
"Shantung will be returned, in due
time, to China. Japan has given her
solemn promise that this will be done.
Japan will retain only what private
corpora ions have elsewhere in China
the right of concessionaries with re
gard to the operation Of the railroads
and mines."
The president repeated he did not
approve of this secret treaty, but he
was unable to overcome it. Then he
pointed out that with the league Of
nations in effect, the representative
of the United States might rise and
say: "This is against the covenant of
peace. 1t cannot be DONE" Then he
went on "And if occasion arises, we
can say 1t shall not be DONE"
The rest of Mr.. Wilson's address
was devoted to the benefits of the
league to the weak nations of the
world and the unlikelihOOd that there
would ever be war If the powers dis
cussed and arbitrated their differ
ences.