The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-10-16
sHANTUNG ONCE MORE

n statement maui puDlACly W
Senator Lodge of his inability to
support the Shantung clause of the
peace treaty, on any terms, must
strike the ordinary man as the only
possible step for any person to take,
who, to an understanding of the con-
ditions, adds a statesmanlike percep-
ton of the consequences entailed.
1t is scarcely necessary to recite
once again the nature of the extraor-
binary surrender of the allied gov
ernments to Japan in the Paris con-
ference. 1t will suffice to say that,
in spite of repeated declarations in
favor of self-determination, a prov
ince, inhabited by some forty mil
lions of people, has had its future de-
termined for it by five aliens in a
French council chamber. Now not
only was this an ~unspeakable breach
of the idea of self-determination, ii
was something even worse, for it was
a decision TO take the destinies of
these forty millions of people out of
the hands of their own national gov
eminent, and to hand them over to
the mercy of a foreign government
which, up to the time of the signing
of the treaty, had had NJ claim upon
them at all.
Now who were the gentlemen who
made this decision. They were really
the Prime Minister of France, the
Prime Minister of the United King
dom, and the President of the United
States. And this is all the more re-
markable when attention is given to
the record of the japanese Govern
ment in dealing with these three pow
ers. TO understand this, it is neces-
sary to know how the secret treaties
between Japan, on the one side, and
France and the United Kingdom, on
the other side, were obtained. Dur
ing the course of Germany's subma-
rine warfare there came a moment
when it seemed to the Admiralties in
London and Paris that the percentage
of losses was so sever that, unless
some means could be found of lessen
ing them, the war would be lost,
OMIuS u lUG utSIIu CllOu VI IOOu sup
plies and wa material. In these
circumstances the British and French
Admiralties applied to the Admiralty
in Tokyo for naval assistance. AT
this moment Japan was an ally Of the
two appealing governments. Moreover.
she was the ally who had suffered
the least of all in the waging of the
war. France and the United King
dom had put their last coin and their
last ship, so to speak, into the strug-
not to do the same thing at all, but
merely to send ships into the Medi-
%terranean in order to help to prevent
the loss of war in which they were
all allies. Japan's reply was sim
plicity itself. 1t was to present the
terms of the Shantung secret treaties
as the price of her acquiesence.
France and the United Kingdom be-
lieved that they were unable to resist
the demand. Whether they were or
not is, so far as the Shantung ques-
ton is concerned, immaterial. They
accepted the terms, and the bond was
signed.
This was before the United States
came into the war. When the United
States did join the Allies, the United
States sem a similar request to Japan
for the assistance of cruisers. Japan
declined to send these, and send
them she never did. In the meantime,
b1xy,1- H.. IS a. Il. -
tons had proved equal to the task
set them. Admiral Sims proposal of
the convoy system had been agreed
to, and the world hardly yet grasps
what it owes to Admiral Sims for
convincing not only the British Ad-
miralty. but the British mercantile
marine. that it was possible to effect
something which stereotyped training
had induced both parties to the agree
ment to regard as most impractical.
In addition to this the depth bomb
had been invented, and so in spite of
the recalcitrancy of Japan the war
was won.
The war won, the representatives of
the various nations arrived at Paris
with their treaties in their pockets.
japan produced her secret treaties
with France and the United Kingdom,
and demanded her pound of flesh. 1t
has been held that a treaty, no mat
ter how gained. is a sacred under
taking. and that the allied nations
could not break their treaties with
Japan, without subjecting them
selves to the scorn of the world, for
treating these treaties as scraps of
paper. But the interesting fact is
that he allied nations not only did
treat as an absolute scrap of paper
the treaty between China and Germany.
but at the i~nstigation of Japan read
into that treaty something which was
never contained in it. The treaty be-