Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-02-28
JAPAN ASKS FOR HIGH POSITION IN FAR EAST
Would Support Supposed Monroe Doctrine for
 Supremacy.
By C. Charles Hodges.

Japan is now attempting at the peace conference to convince the world that she should be given a paramount position i'll the East-a so- called though false. Monroe doctrine establishing the supremacy of the Japanese Empire in this quarter of the world.
 The case of Japan rests upon three grounds: 1 Japan was allied with the entente powers during the four years of warfare since 1914, giving her cooperation in return for a virtual free hand in the East. (2) This made possible Japan's diplomatic assault on China: summarily. the 1915 demands accepted by the Chinese republic un- der duress: the attempt to block China's break with Germany and en- trance into the great war by the side of America: the repeated renewals of the efforts to make China a vassal of Japan, culminating sin the recent Sino-Japanese military convention; and the besgaring of the Chinese na- tion by indiscriminate loans. t3) The seeking of special arrangements. such as the Ishii-Lansing agreement, which could be twisted by Japanese states men into a recognition of Japan's claims by the United States and oth- CT countries
 : It is the contention of the Chinese Republic that she cannot have her 'patrimony bartered away by third par ties without reference to her. China holds. and no one conversant with facts would deny it, that she was cocrccd into signing the 1915 Demands and subsequent arrangements designed to lestablish the hcgemony of the Japan, CSC Empire over her. The Chinese pie inipotentaries maintain that no League of Nations conceived in the spirit of justice can leave unrcdrcssed these wrongs.
 That the American Government looks with sympathy upo nthe case of China in the worlds forum is evil dent from the record.
 Position of America. The United States at the height of the crisis between Japan and China announced it's attitude toward the two countries in order that our stand might be clear. The State Department declared on May 2, 1915:
 At the beginning of negotia-
 tions the Japanese Government
 confidentially informed this
 Government of the matters which
 were under discussion ,and ac-
 companied the information by
 the assurance that aJpan had no
 intention of interfering with eith-
 CT the political independence or
 territorial integrity of China
 and that nothng that she propos-
 ed would discriminate against
 other powers havin gtreatics
 with China or intergfcre with the
 open door, policy to which all
 the leading nations are commit ted.
 "This Government has not only
 had no thought of surrcndering
 any of it's treaty rights with
 China, but it has never been
 asked by either Japan or China to
 make any surrender of these
 rights"
 Our Government, nine days later handed an identic note to both Chins and Japan blunt ysetting forth oul dissent from the Japanese. statecraft which produced the 1915 Treaties. Tn. American note of May 16, 1915, no only affects the agreements betweel Japan and China which were the i'm mediate cause of our stand: it re mains to t'iI, moment a stumbling block to Jat t,i clear field in China iThc American Department of Stat, maintained: SssA
 "In view of the Circumstances
 of bo ,,ofrofsofiN~c :,l> L~,,o
 taken place or which aAe now
 pending between the GoverkNent
 of China and the GovernmenN of
 Japan and the agreements which
 have been reached and as result
 thereof, the Government of the United States has the honour to
 notify the Government of the
 Chinese Republic (and of Japan)
 that it cannot recognize any
 agreement or undertaking which
 has been entered into, or which
 may be entered into between the
 Government of China and Japan
 impairing the treaty rights of the
 United States and it's citizens in
 China, the political or territorial
 integrity of the Republc of China,
 or the international policy, com
 monly known as the Open Door
 policy"
 The Peace Conference.
 These declarations of the United States government are the basis O the American stand at the eace con ference
 In the first, the United tSates stat ed the explicit assurance given b, Japan that the political independence territorial integrity, treaty ebIyga- tions, and the free economic life O China would not be affected. Had no the 1915 treaties-as do the subse auent Sino-Japanesc arrangements infringed on these rights of the United States and the other powers in Chin; why was it necessary to servve not V lice on both Japan and China in lcs than two weeks that American woul, v not recognize any undertaking thel negotiated or subsequently, entered | iptO hy tho tWO cauntrioc acrocc fl,,