The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-09-26
DOESN'T LIKE
SHAN'TUNC PACT
President Would Have Made
an Entirely Different
Settlement,
(BY JOHN EDWIN NEvlN.l

''"''t'' hah, sept Got--tl. N. y.
Tho president Immediately left on
his way back to Washington.
! The president had intended in his
! speech at Wichita to devote most of
! ms Tune to discussion of the Shan
! lnng provision of the peace treaty.
! The following Is in substance what
/ he had intended to say
! Let me take the single objection
| which is made to the body of the
| treaty itSelt-the matter OF the ces-
sion to Japan of the interests of Ger
many in Shantung in China. | said
to my japanese colleagues on the
other side Of sea, and therefore | am
at liberty to say in public, | am moi
satisfied with that settlement. [
thlnk It ought to have been different,
our whHn EC't't mcL propose to cure
II by striking that clause out Of the
treaty or by ourselves Withholding
our adherence to the treaty, they pro-
pose an irrational thing Let me re-
NINA you OF some of the history of
thlS business. 1t was in 1898 that
China ceded these rights and conces-
SONS to Germany. The pretext was
that some German missionaries had
been killed. My heart aches, | must
say, when | think how we have made
an excuse of religion sometimes to
WORK deep wrong. Tha central
government of China had done all
that they could to protect those Ger
man missionaries; their death was
due to local disturbances, to local
passions to local antipathy against
the foreigners There was nothing
that the Chinese government as a
Wtole could justly be held respon-
slble for, but suppose there should
be. TWO Christian missionaries were
Killed and therefore one great nation
RODS another nation and does a thing
which is fundamentally un-Christtan
and heather; for there was no ade
duate excuse for what Germany ex-
acted or CHINA. | read again only
'he other day the phrases in which
poor emma was made to make the
concessions. She was made TO make
them in words dictated by Germany
IN view of her gratitude to Germany
TOR certain services rendered-the
deepest hypocrisy conceivable.
Before we got into this war. but
attef the war had begun. because they
deemed the assistance of Janan in the |
Hhclhc absolutely Indispensable, Great |
Bfitnin and France both agreed that If
Japan would enter the war. she conf !
do the same thing with regard to shan |
tuhE that she had done with regard to |
Foft Arthur that if she would take !
what Germany had in China she could |
Keep H. She took it. She has 1t now. !
Her troops are there She has II as /
spoliS OF war. Observe. my fellow citi- !
Iens, we are not taking this thing away |
from emma; we are taking it from Ger |
many.
Solemn Promise.
Japan is under solemn promise to
forego all sovereign rights in the prov /
lnce of Shantung and TO retain only
What private corporations have else
where in China, the rights Of conees-
sionarieS with regard to the operations
of the railway and exploitation of the
mines. Scores of foreign corporations
nave that right in other parts OF China.
But II does not stop there. Couped
with this arrangement is the league of !
nations, under which Japan soiemnlv
undertakes with the rest of us, to pro-
tect territorial integrity d China along
with the territorial integrity Of other
countries, and back of her promise se lies
the similar promise of every other ma
tlOn, that nowhere will they countenance
a disregard for the territorial integrity |
OF the political independence of that
great helpless people, lyirg there him
erto BIS an object of prey in the great
Orient.
1T is the first time in the history of
the world that anything has been done
for China"
On Board President Wilson's Spe-
eial Train. Sept. 26.--(A. Priest
ing quietly in his private car. Pres
idcnt Wilson was described as feel
ing slightly better this afternoon.
he was up when his train
left Wichita. Kan, DR.. Grayson per-
suaded him to lie down during the
afternoon. 1t was declared his con-
dition was not at all critical.