Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-31
[From a National Geographic So
ciety Bulletin.1

ciety Bulletin.
TONTRARY to general impress
I sion the peace treaty, as sum-
married. in the preliminary
statement does not cede to Japan
the whole province of ShaItung, nor
the bay of Kiao Chau, nor the holy
places of Shantung which include
the home and grave of Confucius.
The geographical limits of the por-
tion ceded are outlined in a COM
munication from Miss Eliza r. Scid-
more, traveller and author of many
books on travel, which in part fol-
lows:
I'm 1896 a German expert reported
to the German government that a
deep water harbor could be dredged
and constructed in the northeast
corner of Kiao Chau Bay. Over
lures were made to the Chinese to
lease the bay to Germany for q long
term of years, a sd were refused.
I'm October, 1897, the opportunity
came to Germany to claim the de-
sired coaling ard repair station for
its fleet in Kiao Chau Bay by the
murder of two missionaries in an
other part of Shantung province.
Apologies and indemnities were de-
manded. A German squadron en-
tered the bay and raised the German
flag. In March 1898, the kiao Chau
convention was signed at Peking,
which gave a 99-year lease of one
hundred Ii of land, comprising the
rocky point at the entrance of Kiao
Chau Bay to Germany, with supple
mentary railway ard mining con-
cessions in the province which pro-
vided for a railway line from this
IAo 20 a
Tsinan-fu, the capital of Shantung,
with the right to develop coal mines
within thirty ii of the line, and to
build two branch lines.
"The ChiEese had not occupied
their imm ediate seacoast since the
ravages of Koxinga, the Japanese
pirate, some centuries ago, to foil
whom the emperor commanded his
subjects to retire thirty Ii inland and
leave the deserted mo mans land to
the buccaneers.
1.-The city of Kiao Chau, forty-five
miles from Tsingtau, by train, is far
across the silted bay and six miles
inland from it's muddy shore.
"Thus Kiao Chau city was not in
cluded in the territory leased by
Germany and therefore is not within
the area now ceded to Japan. But
by the phraseology of the summary
of the peace treaty which states that
Germany cedes to Japan all rights,
titles and privileges notably as to
Kiao Chau. The entire territory
about the bay of Kiao Chau for
merly was known by that name
which still is preserved in diplomatic
correspondence. Only the German
concession was known as TsiEgtau.
"The Germans made Tsingtau a
little corner of Germany in the East.
1t was first declared a free port. the
Chinese Maritime Customs function
ing there as at Hongkong, dealing
orily with cargo to and from the
Chinese hinterland. Later 20 per
cent of the customs collections were
assigned to the maintenance OF the
port.
''The railway line of 255 miles
from Tsingtau to Tsinan-fu, the cap
ital of Shantung, was completed In
1904. 1t does not pass through any
large or rich cities-Tsinan-fu, with
only three hundred thousand inhab-
itants hardly counts in teemina
China-and the line traverses a
rather poor part of the province
After the hills around Tsingtau, there
are uEending levels of bean and
kaoliang fields.
"The coal mines of Fangtse, three
miles from the line, and the Poshar
mines fifty ii from the line, do not
produce a superior coal, and both
coal fields have been worked by the
Chinese for centuries. Borings have
been made to depths of 5000 and
1000 feet through mary thick seams
of coal at Poshan, but the Fangtse
mines are nearly exhausted.
"The railway line was built with.
out regard for local interests. and
when angry peasants drove off en-
engineers and construction gangs
urging that the great railway en-
bankments across their valleys and
fields would impound the waters in
the rainy season, few rounds from
German machine guns ended the dis
cussion.
"In the first weeks of August
1914, the Germans made frantic ef-
forts at Picking temporarily to trans
fer Tsingtau and the railway to some
neutral and obliging power-but not
to China. August 16 japan seEt an
ultimatum to Germany. couched In
the exact language Germany, France
and Russia had addressed to Japan
in 1895 ir asking Japan to withdraw
from Port Arthur and the Liaotune