CHAPTER XXIX
JAPAN SHOWS HER TEETH
Mr. Obata had succeeded Baron Hayashi as Japanese minister in December. He was a dour, silent man who had been much in China, as consular officer and in the Legation. He had sat with Mr. Hioki in the conferences in which the twenty-one demands were pressed on China. He was known to be a very direct representative, in the diplomatic service, of the militarist masters of Japan. His appointment was to the Chinese ominous of a continuance of aggressive tactics. A wail of indignation went up from the Chinese press, but Mr. Obata remained. In my personal relations with this secretive man I thought I saw gradually emerging a broader and more humane outlook.
The new Japanese minister called on the 2nd of February, 1919, at the Foreign Office and expressed resentment at the attitude of the Chinese delegation at Paris. The Chinese representatives had said they were willing to publish all the secret agreements which the diplomacy of Nippon had been weaving around China. Japan objected. The sacred treaties between China and Japan were not to be divulged without the consent of both parties. If China was so anxious to purge herself of secret diplomacy, let her publish first the agreement of September 24, 1918, which gave the special privileges of Germany in Shantung to Japan. The displeasure of the Japanese in Paris was reënforced by Mr. Obata in Peking by what the Chinese took to be a veiled threat. "Great Britain," said he, "is preoccupied with internal disorders. She cannot assist China. But Japan is fully ableto assist, as she has a navy of 500,000 tons, and an army of more than a million men ready for action."
The Shantung agreement had been the consummation of the Japanese-controlled Minister of Communications. The Chinese Foreign Office was not consulted when the Chinese minister at Tokyo signed it, and it had not been ratified by the Chinese Government. The Chinese people viewed it merely as a draft, and demanded its cancellation with the return to Japan of the moneys received under it by the politicians.
Mr. Obata's threat, which the Chinese took to be an attempt to intimidate the Chinese delegation at Paris, evoked a deluge of telegraphic messages urging the President and the Government by all possible means to back their delegates. These expressions came from men of all parties. Chen Lu, Acting Foreign Minister, tried in vain to minimize the effect of the interview. Called before the Chamber of Representatives in secret session, he said that the newspaper reports had been "somewhat exaggerated," and added: "In this time when the right and justice of the Allied Powers have definitely destroyed militarism and despotism, we Chinese, although as yet a weak country, may consider every menace of foreign aggression as a thing of the past, and accept it with a smile."
The Government at first cabled the Paris delegation not to make the secret treaties public; they were not held to be valid by the Chinese Government, and publication might lend them force. Later, the Government cabled, leaving it entirely to the discretion of the delegates. The diplomatic commission of the Chin Pu Tang recommended this. Meanwhile, Mr. Liang Chi-chao had gone to France. He meant to go by way of the United States, where I had prepared for him an itinerary and letters of introduction. Then his intimate associate, Tang Hua-lung, was assassinated in Vancouver. Liang, fearful of a similar fate, went straight to France, evading the Kuo Min Tang sympathizers in America. Ex-Premier Hsiung Hsi-ling told me that Liang was to inform the Chinese delegates unofficially about the state of things in China.
This was so bad that the American recommendation that the powers keep their money away from either party until China was reunited looked more and more desirable. An influential and responsible Chinese, who talked with me about the clique that ran the War Participation Bureau, made this statement: "The danger to China is in the efforts of Tuan's militarists. Japan is giving them money to build up an army. With this they will try to overawe the President and force him to fall in with their aims. The negotiations for peace with the south will cease; the war with the south will go on."
One of the most burning questions both to private individuals and the press was how to oblige Japan and her officials to cease their support of the northern militarists by the sending of money and arms. Certainly a fire was built under them. The Japanese minister called on me on the 9th of January to say that his government would now join in a declaration on financial assistance to China. He had to make reservations about the loan of 20,000,000 yen, pledged in connection with the secret military agreement, also as to the so-called "industrial" loans. The secret loan arrangement had been made with three Japanese banks: the Bank of Chosen, the Industrial Bank of Japan, and the Bank of Formosa, by the War Participation Bureau. With this, the minister said, he could not interfere. Also, his government was in principle favouring a restriction of the sale of arms, as America recommended; but it would be best for the powers to say nothing about it, as their joint statement would be taken as an attempt to restrain Japan, which was the only country able to furnish arms to China. Besides, the War Participation Bureau had a troublesome private contract for arms with the Tayeh Company, which the Government feltit couldn't interfere with. So there you are, as Henry James would put it.
I told the Japanese minister that we were not proposing any platonic arrangement as Americans were both able and willing to furnish arms to the Chinese under legitimate contracts, if the American Government would permit it. Moreover, as to the transaction of those three Japanese banks—since the Government of Japan had an interest both in them and in the munitions company mentioned, their alliance with the War Participation Bureau would be dissociated with difficulty in the public mind from the Japanese Government.
The War Participation Bureau clique was actually getting ready to equip an army against the south while the North-and-South Peace Conference was sitting at Shanghai. Tang Shao-yi, chief peace representative of the south, formally remonstrated to the British minister, as dean of the diplomatic corps, against such doings of this "Bureau" and its Japanese support.
Now, the Bureau had been established as its name implied, to facilitate participation of China in the Great War. Japan's financial support of it was ostensibly given also in behalf of the other Allies. If it were to be prostituted to the fomenting of civil war the others as well could not escape responsibility. A meeting was held on the 12th of February by the Allied and Associated ministers. Several strongly urged that outside money continually given for recruiting of troops was opposed to the aim of restoring settled conditions in China and to the policy of the joint declaration of December. The Japanese minister was silent. He said he must await instructions.
He informed me on February 21st that Japan had called a halt on the shipping of ammunition and equipment to the War Participation Bureau, but the payment of the balance of the loan could not be stopped. Just then, as it happened,an American firm would soon be ready to begin delivery of a certain amount of equipment in China, contracted for in good faith during the previous August. America had proposed a joint declaration against the furnishing of arms, which Japan had blocked. As the declaration had not been made, I could not then stop the American delivery though I did so later. But America would still be only too glad to join in the declaration as proposed.
As the Japanese were still paying the loan funds into the War Participation Bureau, another diplomatic "indignation meeting" was held about it on March 6th. The Japanese minister said his banks could not help paying over those funds, but he had suggested to the Chinese Government that it might be well, in the circumstances, to refrain from drawing the money; Japan could not object to this. Forthwith one of the ministers spoke up: "Then let us all make this recommendation which Japan has made."
At this the Japanese minister was taken aback, almost shocked. He had always argued that the War Participation Bureau was a Chinese internal affair, not one in which the powers that had helped form it should presume to dip. But the suggestion was quickly adopted. As a result, the representatives of Great Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, all solemnly called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, expressing their opinion that to draw the war participation funds was not advisable, as it constituted an obstacle to internal peace.
But Japan's advice had been merely for the record, not at all to be acted upon. Soon there came over to Sir John Jordan an informal memorandum from the Foreign Office, taking the Japanese line of thought that the War Participation Bureau was China's internal affair. It might be construed as an intimation that we were meddling. Indeed, two Chinese of high position told me that the President and the Premier had held up the memorandum for several daysfor fear that it might give offense, until the Minister of War absolutely insisted upon its being sent.
Through these two men I sent a quiet intimation to the President that withdrawal of the memorandum would prevent unpleasant feelings among men who were sincerely friendly to him and to China. The memorandum was pulled back without delay; thereupon all the Chinese officials, except the few directly connected with the War Participation Bureau, rejoiced.
The five representatives who signed the original declaration of December met again on the 11th of March, because the French minister had instructions favouring action upon the Bureau. The Japanese minister advanced his arguments about its being China's business, not ours. But the others took the view that as it was an Allied war institution and Japan had dealt directly with it, it was quasi-external in character. "Is it not quite clear," protested the Japanese minister, "that the loan was purely a commercial affair, made by certain banks, and not controlled by the Japanese Government?" How, then, it was asked in reply, does it happen that in connection with this loan, officers of the Japanese army had been assigned to the War Participation Bureau as advisers and instructors; was it customary to make such extraordinary arrangements in connection with a purely commercial transaction?
"I am not sufficiently informed," Mr. Obata responded evasively. "I shall have to refer to the reports of these transactions."
The position of Japan in this matter was so patently equivocal that it was amusing. We decided that we should make it plain that as this bureau was created to further our common purposes, we could not acquiesce in any political action or in the use of any money which would tend to prolong internal strife.
The Japanese minister on the 1st of March had notifiedthe Chinese Government that no further deliveries of arms would be made to the War Participation Bureau pending the termination of the North-and-South Peace Conference at Shanghai. We proposed to follow this up with joint action. Certain representatives were uninstructed, though they favoured frowning on the arms imports. Finally eight powers united "effectively to restrain their subjects and citizens from importing into China arms and munitions of war until the establishment of a government whose authority is recognized throughout the whole country." This included the delivery of arms under contracts already made but not executed. I could then warn the American firm not to execute its contract for the time being, and I did so.
From time to time, since the early spring of 1918, Baron Sakatani, Japanese ex-Minister of Finance, had been in Peking. Mr. Liang Chi-chao, when as Minister of Finance he made his Japanese loans, had held out the possibility of the appointment of a Japanese financial advisor. The Baron was an old acquaintance of mine and I held him in high regard; but, in view of the fact that I could not consider this time a proper one for settling the matter of the financial advisorships, I had to distinguish between my personal feelings for him and the official stand which I might have to take. A Japanese friend wrote me in connection with Baron Sakatani's visit to China: "A section of our capitalists have been given every facility to make money and to lend it to China; with the money squeezed from them, the military bureaucrats have been corrupting party men and sending them to China and elsewhere, to exploit the warring nations while they are busy with the war. The civilian officials and militarists cannot think anything except in terms of German fear or admiration. If such Japanese are employed by the Peking government, it will forever alienate Chinese sympathies from anything we may propose."
Baron Sakatani from the first had nursed the ambition of being made currency adviser to the Chinese Government; by January, 1919, it appeared that his wish was to be fulfilled. The Japanese minister announced that the other nations had agreed to the Baron's appointment. I had not agreed to it. I had heard nothing whatever about it and had consistently and energetically opposed any action of this sort. I considered that it would permanently determine the course to be taken with regard to currency loans, and would preclude the possibility of any consultation with the United States. I requested the Minister of Finance to defer the appointment until I could consult my government. The next development came on the 20th when the Japanese minister handed me a memorandum which referred to the personal goodwill I had expressed to Baron Hayashi and which went on to state that the proposed appointment of Baron Sakatani had been sanctioned by Mr. Lansing in Washington.
I cabled to Washington, receiving therefrom on the 30th instructions saying that the appointment of a currency adviser should be settled only after full consultation by all concerned, and that Mr. Lansing had not committed himself to any other understanding. I sent a note to the Minister of Finance, stating that as one of the parties to the Currency Loan Agreement, the United States wished that action be postponed until further consideration could be given. I was immediately assured that the position taken would be considered as final. As a personal friend I regretted that Baron Sakatani could not be retained, but in so important a matter it was impossible to stand aside while action was rushed through which would be prejudicial to the long-established interests of the powers who were, at the time, preoccupied with after-war problems.
CHAPTER XXX
BANDITS, INTRIGUERS, AND A HOUSE DIVIDED
There is a phase of Chinese life which I should touch upon if the picture I am trying to give of the China I knew is to be complete.
Brigandage is an established institution in China, where it has operated so long that people have become accustomed to it and take it for granted as a natural visitation. At this time there was a vicious circle around which brigands and troops and rich citizens and villagers were travelling, one in pursuit of the other. The brigands were recruited from disbanded soldiers—men who had lost connection with their family and clan. Often their families had been wiped out by famine, flood, or disease, or had been killed in the revolution. At other times the individual may have lost touch through a fault of his own causing him to be cast out. It is very difficult for an isolated person, without family and clan connections, to reëstablish himself. The easiest way is to enlist in the army. If that cannot be done, he becomes a brigand. Brigands foregather in provinces where the administration is lax or in remote regions difficult to reach. They lie in ambush and seize wealthy persons, who are carried off to the hills and released only when ransom is paid. In this way, a considerable tax is levied on accumulated wealth. This money the brigands spend among the villagers where they happen to be. Meanwhile, the Provincial Governor bethinks himself that a certain brigade or division has not been paid for a long time and therefore might cause trouble, so he announces what is called a "country cleansing campaign." The situation is so intolerable that the generalsees himself forced to go to extremes, and to send his troops with orders to exterminate the brigands. They proceed to the infested regions; the brigands, having meanwhile got wind of these movements, depart for healthier climes, leaving the troops to quarter themselves on the villagers, who are by them relieved of the money which they have made out of the brigands. Some brigands may be unfortunate enough to be caught; some will be shot as an example, and others will be allowed to enlist. When the soldiers have dwelt for a while among the villagers, they report that the bands have now been fully suppressed and that the country is cleaned. They are then recalled to headquarters; their general reports to the governor, and is appropriately rewarded. Meanwhile, the brigands return from their safer haunts and begin again to catch wealthy people, whom they relieve of their surplus liquidable property. And so the circle revolves interminably.
A little more efficiency in China would deliver it of much of its intriguing and all of its banditry. Returning to Peking from a trip to the Philippines I found that Mr. Kyle, an American engineer on the Siems-Carey railway survey, and Mr. Purcell, another employé, had been seized by bandits in a remote part of Honan. The bandits took a large sum of silver these men were carrying to pay off the surveying parties farther up toward Szechuan, then they decided to hold Kyle and Purcell for ransom.
Doctor Tenney, the Chinese secretary, was in Kaifengfu, stirring up the provincial governor to hurry the release of the men. The company was quite ready to pay the ransom, and I could easily have induced the Chinese Government to pay it. I was advised that this would be the only certain way of rescuing the men, but I felt it would be a dangerous precedent; as the bandits would then go on taking and holding foreigners for ransom. Mr. Kyle was neither young nor robust. I feared for the strenuous life and the worry he wasundergoing, but waited two weeks for the Central and the Provincial Government, which I made responsible, to get them back. One night, Mr. Purcell escaped. I then through Doctor Tenney notified the Governor-General that he must surround the entire region where the bandits were, telling them emphatically that if anything happened to Mr. Kyle the band would be hunted down and exterminated.
The threat was "got across" to the bandits, and with it a promise that those instrumental in restoring the captive would escape punishment and in some way be rewarded. After a week's further suspense Mr. Kyle was delivered to the pursuing troops and forthwith returned to Peking. The chief of the band was rewarded with a commission in the army; his henchmen were enlisted as soldiers. But those who had no part in the delivery were one by one caught and executed. So, in the end, a salutary example was set to keep bandits from interfering with foreigners.
Mr. Kyle moved with the band every night in their mountainous and inaccessible region. Over divides they went from valley to valley. Mr. Kyle kept his normal health, but complained that they had not let him sleep. He snored so loudly, the bandits told him, that they feared he would attract the notice of the troops; so, during the final ten days, he had not had a solid hour of sleep. But he made up his mind that he would keep his mental equipoise and his physical fitness in order to live through the experience.
Two woman missionaries had been taken at about the same time by bandits in Shantung Province. But they were released after a few days. The missionaries of the society they belonged to circulated a pamphlet somewhat later, pointing out the superior efficacy of prayer over diplomatic intervention. In response to prayer these two teachers had been freed within a week; whereas all our diplomatic efforts had not yet secured the release of the American engineer.
Fear of foreign displeasure lost the Chinese the chance toget the services of a great engineer. Before going to the Philippines I had been visited by Mr. Ostrougoff, Minister of Railways in Kerensky's time, who had inaugurated the Russian agreement under which Mr. John F. Stevens was given the task of helping to reorganize the Russian railways. The work had been prevented by disturbed conditions. Admiral Kolchak, together with Alexis Staal, had also called on me, with others who had faith in the beginnings of a representative political organization in Siberia. I recall Kolchak's fine, serious face, and his manner which was that of a man under the strain imposed by duties that transcend any mere personal interest. On my return, John F. Stevens came to Peking for a month. He was discouraged by the Russian and Siberian situation. The general breakdown, the social revolution, and the establishment of soviets had demolished the chances for carrying out his railway plans in Russia. No organized authority had backed him. In Peking he studied the Chinese railway situation. In his quiet, thorough-going way, he looked into the whole question for China; it was not long before he had great confidence in its possibilities. I felt it would be a godsend if a man of his genius for original planning and constructive work, proved in the great Panama Canal project; a man, moreover, who had intimate experience of American railway operation, could work out with the Chinese a systematic plan for developing their railway service. The Chinese would have eagerly welcomed this chance, but they were not free. The engagement of one foreigner would have brought demands to employ many more.
This was in the spring of 1918. I called on Mr. Liang Shih-yi to greet him on his return from exile. "The urgent thing," he said, "is to put a stop to military interference with the civil government. The question of a parliament is not quite so important, but, as it has been put to the fore, it must be solved first. My solution is to elect a newparliament under the old law. Then reduce the army and separate military from civilian affairs."
Liang described to me the characteristics of the nine chief southern leaders. They were rivals, they had their hostilities; no three leaders would agree. Two would come to an understanding, and the rest would turn and rend them. Finally, he predicted that Hsu Shih-chang would be the most likely candidate for President, Tuan having declined.
In Hunan the northern and southern troops were still fighting and inflicting suffering on the people there; General Chang Chin-yao, in particular, an opium-smoking gambler and corrupter, the military governor of Hunan; his troops destroyed certain property belonging to missionaries. American and British residents of Changsha, the capital, petitioned the British and American ministers for protection to foreign life and property. I had learned that the governor put no bridle on his troops. With my British and Japanese colleagues I insisted that commanding officers be held personally and individually responsible for injuries to foreigners. We pointed out that Chang, especially, was under observation. The Minister for Foreign Affairs delivered a warning, and Admiral Knight, whom I had fully advised, ordered a gunboat to Changsha.
Meanwhile, the War Participation Bureau, created to aid the Associated Powers in the Great War, was watched by Japan. Because of it they made their special military convention of which General Tuan had spoken to me, using the revolution in Russia and the rise of Bolshevism as their pretext. The Japanese militarist element in the Government was active and urgent, and General Aoki at Peking and General Tanaka at Tokyo were leaving no stone unturned to aid them. They sought at first a general military alliance. The Chinese would not consider anything so sweeping. Then the unrest in Siberia was made the basis of more limited coöperation. In March a preliminaryentente was formed; China and Japan would consider in common the measures to be taken to cope with the Russian situation and to take part in the present war, and the means and conditions of coöperation would be arranged by the military and naval authorities of both countries.
War participation in general was thus put into the purview of mutual agreement between Japan and China. While no general military alliance was concluded, nevertheless the Japanese could now control what was to be done by China in the war. It meant that China would do nothing.
The terms of the military and naval conventions on methods of coöperating, concluded the 16th of May, flexibly permitted Japan in certain circumstances to control Chinese railways and resources. The whole thing was managed secretly. The public became suspicious of the results, since the chief arrangements were made not by the cabinet or the Foreign Office, but by the military and naval representatives. Would China longer freely coöperate with the other Allies? Would she not be under Japan's strict leadership? Was not this the entering wedge for a complete control of Chinese military affairs by Japan? Would not Chinese militarism be strengthened and made obedient to Japanese policy?
Japan's acts in Shantung gave these questions pertinence. There she was expropriating by eminent domain; in Tsingtau the Japanese authorities thus acquired about twelve square miles of land, including the shore of Kiaochow Bay for several miles, which gave control of every land approach and every possible steamship and railway terminal in this port. Plainly, Japan was carrying out a policy of permanent occupation.
While the Chino-Japanese entente was being negotiated, Japanese-controlled papers in China were preaching enmity to the white race. In May a Japanese parliamentary party visited China, making speeches calculated to stir racial feeling. The burden of the appeals was that, after the war,European nations would try to fasten their control more firmly on China, hence the yellow race should now unite in timely opposition.
Mr. Nishihara, close associate of the Japanese Premier, General Terauchi, was unofficially doing the financial business of Japan in China. The Japanese Legation could deny that negotiations were going on, while Japanese interests were actively influencing the financial measures of the Peking Government. A large loan was proposed, to be secured on the tobacco and wine revenues. They were the security for the existing American loan, with option for further advances. I asked Tsao Ju-lin, Minister of Finance, about this and his answer was: "The United States is not giving to China the assistance she gives to her other associates in the war. The American bankers have not completed their contract. It is necessary for China to look elsewhere."
Mr. Tsao said he would at any time consider American proposals and give them as favourable treatment as to any other nation. I asked assurances that before anything further was done on the basis of the tobacco and wine revenues, the American bank have a chance to consider a proposal from the Chinese Government under its option. The minister had denied that the revenues were now in any way involved; but at this request he sidestepped. I made the most of his denial, placing it on record in a note to the Foreign Office. The French minister took action similar to mine. Tsao was not only Minister of Finance; he was concurrently Minister of Communications. Both departments, therefore, were under the thumb of Japan.
I have rather rapidly sketched the state of affairs within China up to July of 1918. I wished a personal discussion of the situation with the officials at Washington—my first since America's entrance into the war. I left Peking for the United States after another long interview with GeneralTuan, who had become Premier. On June 27th the Premier stated to me his policy and motives with frankness. "If we stop military action," he said, "that would be interpreted as weakness. The south would only make more extravagant demands, and further encroach on northern territory. Force that is adequate—that answers the question. For this we need money. If home revenues are not enough, then we must have foreign loans. That will restore national unity, which, in turn, will make repayment easy. The army will be reformed. The people will get protection, and the country will prosper."
This policy was wise, inevitable, he thought. But it suited a class of inept generals who systematically made war at home, with only moderate risk of actual fighting. Their methods involved money more than bayonets.
"When you return from America," Tuan said at parting, "everything will be settled, and the south will recognize our authority."
A sea-borne war expedition, sent to conquer the south, was in his mind. I could not but express my conviction of the impossibility of such an achievement but he was obstinate.
I divided my time in America between Washington and New York, save for a visit to my mother. In four weeks I saw representatives of most of the great interests, public and private, involved in China. I by no means stopped with the State Department. I saw the Secretary of War and the Adjutant General, on questions dealing with the recruiting of troops to be stationed in China; the Intelligence Division of the War Department and of the Navy, as well as the Committee on Public Information; the Secretary of Commerce, and officials of the War Trade Board and War Industries Board, about restrictions on commerce and American commercial developments in China, together with the men of the Shipping Board about trans-Pacific lines. Among great private organizations I conferred with members ofthe National City Bank; J.P. Morgan & Company; the Guaranty Trust Company of New York; Kuhn, Loeb & Company; the General Electric and American Locomotive companies; the Standard Oil Company of New York; the International Banking Corporation and American International Corporation; the Chase National Bank; the Siems-Carey Company; Pacific Development Corporation, and the Continental & Commercial Bank of Chicago.
The American policy with respect to Russia and Siberia had not been determined, and in interviews with President Wilson the Siberian problem, to which I had been very close, as well as Chinese finance, were subjects of particular attention. I showed to the President how the Chinese got loans for alleged industrial purposes; then, with the connivance of the lenders, instead of building railways and telephone systems, they diverted them to political or partisan ends. Thus Chinese credit and the authority of the Government were progressively weakened. Then foreigners would encroach, and in some fields American opportunity was in danger of being restricted or lost entirely. I wished to see the United States backing financially a sound programme of Chinese reorganization. That would accord with our traditions. But jealousies and friction were to be eliminated, hence I favoured the forming of an International Public Loan Consortium.
This would support the credit of the Chinese Government and put Chinese finance on a sound basis. Such a consortium would claim priority in making all administrative or political loans; but monopoly should be avoided by leaving contracts for building and supplies open to competition, and by letting outside financiers make industrial loans. Of course, the Consortium as the chief backer of China should have full information about industrial loans, and each government should engage to scrutinize all loans made by its nationals for industries. All this, at his request, went to thePresident in a memorandum submitted on the 14th of August.
With respect to Siberia and Russia, my information led me to believe that the Russian people might still be influenced to remain friendly to the Allies, so as to prevent the growth of German control. I had in mind, not intervention, but economic assistance. I urged a commission that would aid the Russian people to import the commodities they needed most. The Russian Coöperative societies were anxious for just such assistance; thus, their leaders believed, further unfavourable developments could be prevented. I knew the Russians to be universally friendly; any movement initiated by America would be received with extreme goodwill.
President Wilson seemed to wish something like this to be carried out. He even discussed with me what men were most likely to succeed in organizing so huge an enterprise. But he feared to place a representative of "big business" in such a position; men would suspect selfish national motives. I felt that he wished America to lead in giving the Russian people such aid in reorganizing their economic life as would permanently benefit them and preserve them for our common cause.
After many, many departments and boards were consulted, I found they were not thinking of China. Their chief problem was to train the American army and transport it to the western front. They did not care to get Chinese contingents there. This was the critical moment of the war. By comparison other interests shrivelled. As for financial advances to China, the Government found that China entered the war after the law authorizing advances was passed. A new law would be needed. To propose it would bring up the whole question of war policy. The temper of the day was to concentrate every effort on the greatest immediate show of strength on the west front. I appreciated all this, but I deeply regretted that a tiny rivulet out of the vast streams offinancial strength directed to Europe could not pass to China. Even one thousandth part of the funds given to Europe, invested in building up China, would have prevented many disheartening and disastrous developments. For every dollar tenfold in value would have been gained in fortifying Chinese ability to help in the war and in the post-bellum recovery.
CHAPTER XXXI
YOUNG MEN IN PEKING, OLD MEN IN PARIS
A crowd of students appeared before the legation gate on the 5th of May clamouring to see me. I was absent, that day, on a trip to the temple above Men Tou-kou and so missed seeing them. Their demonstration, as it turned out afterward, was the first step in the widespread student movement which was to make history. Their patriotic fervour had, on that morning, been brought to the boiling point by the first inkling of the Paris decision on Shantung.
The first reaction of the Chinese people as a whole to this news was one of dumb dismay. It was a stunning, paralyzing blow. It seemed that all the brazen intrigue through which Japan had been seeking to strengthen her hold on Shantung, all the cunning by which she had prepared the basis of her claim to permanent possession of the German rights, had been endorsed by the Versailles Conference.
The Chinese people, discouraged in Peking, had centred their hopes on Paris. When hints of a possible acceptance of Japan's demands were received in Peking, the first impulse of the students was to see the American minister, to ask him whether this news was true, and to see what he had to say. I escaped a severe ordeal.
When they were told that I was absent there was at first a hum of voices, then came the cry: "To the house of the traitor!" They meant the house of Tsao Ju-lin, where the schemers had assembled to make the contracts which China hated. Tsao Ju-lin, the smooth little plotter whom most people regarded as the guiding spirit of the humiliating business, was the most despised; but they associated with himChang Ching-hsiang, who had been Chinese minister at Tokyo when the secret treaties were drawn up. The students rushed over to the house and broke down the door and trooped inside. They found both men there. No time was lost, either on the part of the students or their prey. The students breaking up chairs and tables and using pieces of them for weapons went after the two diplomats. Tsao, still smooth and slippery, managed to escape through a window and into a narrow alley where he eluded his pursuers. Chang, however, was beaten into insensibility. Lu Tsung-yu, the other plotter whom the students would have "treated rough", was not to be found.
For four days we were without foreign news. The first brief telegraphic intimation of the Paris decision was followed by the cutting of the wires; Japanese agents, the people surmised, did this to prevent the universal Chinese protest from influencing the decision or causing its review.
Primarily the cause of the student violence lay in the proximity of the fourth anniversary of the Japanese ultimatum of 1915; but they were also anxious and stirred because of the reported action of the old men at Paris.
While other telegraphic communication was cut off I got information of what was actually done by wireless. I found it hard to believe that President Wilson would be compliant to the Japanese demands, in View of the complete and insistent information the American Government had had from me and all other American officials in China as to what would result from such action. The Shantung decision constituted a wrong of far-reaching effect; no general benefits bestowed by a league of nations could outweigh it. Indeed, as I stated to the Government, it destroyed all confidence in a league of nations which had such an ugly fact as its cornerstone.
To any one who had watched, day by day, month by month, the unconscionable plotting for these claims, the decision was a lamentable denial of every principle put forward during the war. President Wilson brushed aside the unanimous opinion of the American experts, it would seem, for two reasons: first, he believed that if only the League were established, all difficulties of detail could easily be resolved; and, second, he had not given enough attention to the Shantung question to realize that this was not a matter of detail, but a fundamental issue.
President Wilson tried to make himself and others believe that with the acceptance of the Treaty and Covenant, the Shantung question would be solved through fulfilment by Japan of its promise "to restore Shantung Peninsula to China with full sovereignty," reserving only economic rights. This was his primary misconception. The ownership by a foreign government of a trunk railway reaching from a first-class port to the heart of China could not be correctly termed an economic right. Political control of such "economic rights" was exactly what American policy had tried to prevent for decades. The President submitted, also, in the apparent fear that Japanese delegates might follow the lead of the Italians and leave the Conference. Colonel House, it appears, was frightened into this belief and communicated it to President Wilson; the two believed the League was endangered, and that every sacrifice must be made to save it.
The fear was quite unfounded. I had seen indications enough, of which I had told the Government, that the Japanese set enormous store upon their membership in the Conference and their position in Paris. As a military, naval, and financial power, Japan could certainly not be put in the first class, notwithstanding the tactical advantages which the war had brought her. She would never forego the first-class status bestowed by the arrangements of the Peace Conference. The Japanese had not the remotest idea of throwing these advantages to the wind. The impression they produced on Colonel House simply proved their capacity for bluffing. Had President Wilson taken the trouble to understand thesituation, he could without difficulty, by the use of friendly firmness, have secured a very different solution. As a matter of fact, it is now well known that the Japanese were ready to agree to an arrangement whereby the German rights in China should accrue to the Allied and Associated Powers jointly with an early reversion to China.
Probably nowhere else in the world had expectations of America's leadership at Paris been raised so high as in China. The Chinese trusted America, they trusted the frequent declarations of principle uttered by President Wilson, whose words had reached China in its remotest parts. The more intense was their disappointment and disillusionment due to the decisions of the old men that controlled the Peace Conference. It sickened and disheartened me to think how the Chinese people would receive this blow which meant the blasting of their hopes and the destruction of their confidence in the equity of nations.
In the universal despair I feared a revulsion of feeling against America; not because we were more to blame than others for the unjust decision, but because the Chinese had entertained a deeper belief in our power, influence, and loyalty to principle. They would hardly understand so abject and complete a surrender. Foreign papers, also, placed the chief responsibility on the United States. The British in China felt that their government had been forced into the unfortunate secret agreements with Japan when it could not help itself, because of the German danger and the difficulties Japan might raise by going over to the other side. The United States, whose hands were free, could have saved us all, they said, by insisting on the right solution. They had really hoped for this; their saying so now in their editorials and in private conversation was in no spirit of petty hostility, but they had to give vent to their feelings. I feared the Chinese might feel that they had been betrayed in the house of their friends, but they met the blow with sturdyspirit. They never wounded my feelings by anything approaching an upbraiding of the United States for the part that President Wilson played at Paris. They expressed to me their terrible dejection, but said merely that President Wilson must have encountered very great difficulties which they could know nothing about.
They all knew, of course, that the case of China had been weakened by the treaties made through the connivance of Tsao Ju-lin and his associates in the fall of 1918. Their resentment was turned toward Japan, which had thus taken advantage of the war and the weakness of China, and against the Chinese politicians who had become Japan's tools.
The Americans in China, as well as the British and the Chinese, were deeply dejected during these difficult weeks. From the moment America entered the war there had been a triumphant confidence that all this sacrifice and suffering would establish just principles of world action, under which mankind could live more happily and in greater security. That hope was now all but crushed.
In commemoration of the soldier dead, the American community gathered on May 30th, Decoration Day. It fell to me to make the address, in which I spoke of those recently stationed in Peking who had died during the war. Especially, I spoke of the fruitful career of Major Willard Straight. It was remarkable how many officers of the Marine Guard recently in Peking had gone through the brunt of the war and had been distinguished in their service. I spoke of General Neville, General Bowley, Commander Hutchins, Colonel Newell, and Colonel Holcombe, all of whom had been in the thick of it, and rejoiced in their record and the fact that though they passed through the valley of death they had been spared. My eyes often rested on the sad face of Mrs. Deering, transfigured with the mother's pride in that heroic son whose war letters, published by her, are one of the intimately human memorials of the great struggle.
I was impressed with how inadequately this wonderful country of China and the promise of its people were understood in America. I knew the difficulties and dangers to be overcome there, and I felt that Americans well-disposed toward China would take a hand in its development. But the "folks back home," especially the interests that controlled the economic life of America, remained blind and deaf, lavishing their money in Europe.
I had spent my energies freely, withholding assistance from none who deserved it, although I could easily have limited my official action within narrower and more convenient bounds. In developments that would mean a slow lift of this fine old civilization to a modern plane real American interests had come in. Foundations had been laid in the Canal Contract, the China Medical Board, the railway concessions, the creation of a Chino-American bank, and many other enterprises. America stood no longer with empty hands; she could not be confronted with the gibe so often used before: "It is easy for you to suggest generous action, for you have nothing to contribute."
With these as beginnings, I arrived at the conclusion that more, possibly, could be done by way of arousing American interests in Far Eastern affairs by going to the United States than by staying in China. I feared, also, that if I remained away from America too long, it would be difficult readily to get in touch again with affairs there.
For such reasons, I came to the decision that I should send my resignation to the President. I did not wish to run away from a difficult and disagreeable situation. Indeed, until the first effects of the Paris decision had been overcome, I would not leave. Beyond that time, I had no desire to remain. Like the Chinese, I at that time still believed that President Wilson had probably met tremendous difficulties of which I had no knowledge. At any rate, it was far from my purpose to embarrass him or the Government throughmy action. Therefore, the only motive I gave for my resignation was my desire to return to the United States. However, in my letter to the President I tried to express in moderate but serious terms my view of the situation and of the action which had been taken at Paris. This letter follows:
June 7, 1919.Dear Mr. President:I have the honour to place in your hands my resignation as minister to China and to request that I may be relieved of the duties of this post as soon as convenient to yourself and to the Secretary of State. My reason for this action is that I am wearied after nearly six years of continuous strain, that I feel that the interests of my family demand my return to the United States, and that I should like to reënter affairs at home without making my absence so long as to break off all of the most important relationships.I desire to thank you for the confidence you have reposed in me, and it shall be my greatest desire to continue in the future to coöperate in helping to realize those great purposes of national and international policy which you have so clearly and strongly put before the American nation and the world.In making this communication to you I cannot but refer to recent developments with respect China. The general outlook is indeed most discouraging, and it seems impossible to accomplish anything here at present or until the home governments are willing to face the situation and to act. It is not difficulties that deter me, and I should stay at my post if it were necessary and if I did not think that I could be of more use in the United States than in China at the present time. But in fact, the situation requires that the American people should be made to realize what is at stake here for us in order that they may give the necessary backing to the Government for support in any action which the developments here may Inquire. Unless the American people realize this and the Government feels strong enough to take adequate action, the fruits of one hundred and forty years of American work in China will inevitably be lost. Our people will be permitted to exist here only on the sufferance of others, and the great opportunity which has been held out to us by the Chinese people to assist in the development of education and free institutions will be gone beyond recall. In its stead there will come a sinister situation dominated by the unscrupulous methods of the reactionary military régime centred inTokyo, absolutist in tendency, cynical of the principles of free government and human progress. If this force, with all the methods it is accustomed to apply, remains unopposed there will be created in the Far East the greatest engine of military oppression and dominance that the world has yet seen. Nor can we avoid the conclusion that the brunt of evil results will fall on the United States, as is already foreshadowed by the bitter hostility and abnormal vituperativeness of the Japanese press with regard to America.The United States and Great Britain will have to stand together in this matter; I do not think this is realized as fully by Britishers at home as by those out here. If Russia can become an independent representative government its interests would parallel ours. The forces of public opinion and strength which can thus be mobilized are entirely sufficient to control the situation here and to keep it from assuming the menacing character which is threatened at present; but this can only be done if the situation is clearly seen and if it is realized that the military party of Japan will continue its present methods and purposes which have proved so successful until it becomes a dead wall of firm, quiet opposition. There will be a great deal of talk of friendship for China, of restoration of Shantung, of loyalty to the League of Nations, but it will be dangerous to accept this and to stop questioning what are the methods actually applied; as long as they exist the menace is growing all the time. We cannot rest secure on treaties nor even on the League of Nations without this checking up of the facts. Otherwise these instruments would only make the game a little more complicated but not change its essential character. The menace can be avoided only if it is made plain to Japan that her purposes are unmistakable and that the methods utilized to effect them will by no means be tolerated. Such purposes are the stirring up of trouble and revolution, encouragement of bandits and pirates, morphia, financial corruption, misleading of the press, refusal of just satisfaction when Americans are injured in order to gain prestige for absolute power, and chief of all official duplicity, such as the disavowal of knowledge when loans are being made to the Chinese Government by leading Japanese banks and the subsequent statement by the Japanese minister that these loans were private arrangements by "merchants."If continuous support could be given not only to the activities of American merchants but to the constructive forces in Chinese national life itself these purposes and methods would not have the chance to flourish and succeed which they now enjoy.During the war our action in the support of constructive forces in China necessarily could not be effective, as our energies were required elsewhere.Yet I believe that a great opportunity was missed when China had broken of relations with Germany. The very least recognition of her sentiments, support and efforts, on our part, would have changed the entire situation. But while millions upon millions were paid to the least important of the countries of Europe not a cent was forthcoming for China. This lack of support drove Tuan and his followers into the arms of the pro-Japanese agents. Instead of support we gave China the Lansing-Ishii Note.Throughout this period the Japanese game has still been in the stage of bluff; while Germany seemed at her strongest in the war, indeed the Japanese were perhaps making their veiled threats with a feeling that if they should ally themselves with a strong Germany the two would be invincible; but even at that time a portion of the American navy detached could have checkmated Japan. Since the complete breakdown of Germany the case of Japan has been carried through solely on bluff though perhaps it may be that the Japanese militarists have succeeded in convincing themselves that their establishment is formidable. But it is plain that they would be absolutely powerless in the face of a stoppage of commerce and a navy demonstration on the part of any one of the great powers. No one desires to think of this contingency, but it is plain that after the breakdown of Germany it was not feasible for Japan to use force nor could she have suffered a greater damage than to exclude herself from the Peace Conference where she had everything to gain and nothing to lose. In ten years there may be a very different situation. Then also our people, having grown wise, will be sure to shout: "Why was not this stopped while there was yet time?" It seems to me necessary that someone in the Government ought to give attention primarily to China and the Far Eastern situation. It is very difficult to get any attention for China. I mean any continuous attention that results in getting something actually done. Everything else seems to come first because Europe seems so much nearer; and yet the destinies of Serbia, Czecho-Slovakia, and Greece are infinitesimal in their importance to the future of America compared With those of China.During my service here I have constantly suffered from this lack of continuous attention at home to the Far Eastern situation. It has reacted on the consular service; the interpreter service which is absolutely necessary to make our consular corps in China effective has been starved, as no new appointments have been made. In my own case promises of assistance which had been given repeatedly went unfulfilled. In this matter I have not the least personal feeling. I know the result is not due to the personal neglect or ill-will of any man or group of men, only it seems to me to indicate a general sentiment of the unimportance of Far Eastern affairs, which ought to be remedied. I repeat that these statements are not made in aspirit of complaint; all individual members of the Department of State have shown nothing but consideration and readiness to assist, but there has been lacking a concentrated interest in China, which ought to be represented in some one of the high officials, designated to follow up Far Eastern affairs and accorded influence commensurate with responsibilities in this matter.
June 7, 1919.Dear Mr. President:
I have the honour to place in your hands my resignation as minister to China and to request that I may be relieved of the duties of this post as soon as convenient to yourself and to the Secretary of State. My reason for this action is that I am wearied after nearly six years of continuous strain, that I feel that the interests of my family demand my return to the United States, and that I should like to reënter affairs at home without making my absence so long as to break off all of the most important relationships.
I desire to thank you for the confidence you have reposed in me, and it shall be my greatest desire to continue in the future to coöperate in helping to realize those great purposes of national and international policy which you have so clearly and strongly put before the American nation and the world.
In making this communication to you I cannot but refer to recent developments with respect China. The general outlook is indeed most discouraging, and it seems impossible to accomplish anything here at present or until the home governments are willing to face the situation and to act. It is not difficulties that deter me, and I should stay at my post if it were necessary and if I did not think that I could be of more use in the United States than in China at the present time. But in fact, the situation requires that the American people should be made to realize what is at stake here for us in order that they may give the necessary backing to the Government for support in any action which the developments here may Inquire. Unless the American people realize this and the Government feels strong enough to take adequate action, the fruits of one hundred and forty years of American work in China will inevitably be lost. Our people will be permitted to exist here only on the sufferance of others, and the great opportunity which has been held out to us by the Chinese people to assist in the development of education and free institutions will be gone beyond recall. In its stead there will come a sinister situation dominated by the unscrupulous methods of the reactionary military régime centred inTokyo, absolutist in tendency, cynical of the principles of free government and human progress. If this force, with all the methods it is accustomed to apply, remains unopposed there will be created in the Far East the greatest engine of military oppression and dominance that the world has yet seen. Nor can we avoid the conclusion that the brunt of evil results will fall on the United States, as is already foreshadowed by the bitter hostility and abnormal vituperativeness of the Japanese press with regard to America.
The United States and Great Britain will have to stand together in this matter; I do not think this is realized as fully by Britishers at home as by those out here. If Russia can become an independent representative government its interests would parallel ours. The forces of public opinion and strength which can thus be mobilized are entirely sufficient to control the situation here and to keep it from assuming the menacing character which is threatened at present; but this can only be done if the situation is clearly seen and if it is realized that the military party of Japan will continue its present methods and purposes which have proved so successful until it becomes a dead wall of firm, quiet opposition. There will be a great deal of talk of friendship for China, of restoration of Shantung, of loyalty to the League of Nations, but it will be dangerous to accept this and to stop questioning what are the methods actually applied; as long as they exist the menace is growing all the time. We cannot rest secure on treaties nor even on the League of Nations without this checking up of the facts. Otherwise these instruments would only make the game a little more complicated but not change its essential character. The menace can be avoided only if it is made plain to Japan that her purposes are unmistakable and that the methods utilized to effect them will by no means be tolerated. Such purposes are the stirring up of trouble and revolution, encouragement of bandits and pirates, morphia, financial corruption, misleading of the press, refusal of just satisfaction when Americans are injured in order to gain prestige for absolute power, and chief of all official duplicity, such as the disavowal of knowledge when loans are being made to the Chinese Government by leading Japanese banks and the subsequent statement by the Japanese minister that these loans were private arrangements by "merchants."
If continuous support could be given not only to the activities of American merchants but to the constructive forces in Chinese national life itself these purposes and methods would not have the chance to flourish and succeed which they now enjoy.
During the war our action in the support of constructive forces in China necessarily could not be effective, as our energies were required elsewhere.Yet I believe that a great opportunity was missed when China had broken of relations with Germany. The very least recognition of her sentiments, support and efforts, on our part, would have changed the entire situation. But while millions upon millions were paid to the least important of the countries of Europe not a cent was forthcoming for China. This lack of support drove Tuan and his followers into the arms of the pro-Japanese agents. Instead of support we gave China the Lansing-Ishii Note.
Throughout this period the Japanese game has still been in the stage of bluff; while Germany seemed at her strongest in the war, indeed the Japanese were perhaps making their veiled threats with a feeling that if they should ally themselves with a strong Germany the two would be invincible; but even at that time a portion of the American navy detached could have checkmated Japan. Since the complete breakdown of Germany the case of Japan has been carried through solely on bluff though perhaps it may be that the Japanese militarists have succeeded in convincing themselves that their establishment is formidable. But it is plain that they would be absolutely powerless in the face of a stoppage of commerce and a navy demonstration on the part of any one of the great powers. No one desires to think of this contingency, but it is plain that after the breakdown of Germany it was not feasible for Japan to use force nor could she have suffered a greater damage than to exclude herself from the Peace Conference where she had everything to gain and nothing to lose. In ten years there may be a very different situation. Then also our people, having grown wise, will be sure to shout: "Why was not this stopped while there was yet time?" It seems to me necessary that someone in the Government ought to give attention primarily to China and the Far Eastern situation. It is very difficult to get any attention for China. I mean any continuous attention that results in getting something actually done. Everything else seems to come first because Europe seems so much nearer; and yet the destinies of Serbia, Czecho-Slovakia, and Greece are infinitesimal in their importance to the future of America compared With those of China.
During my service here I have constantly suffered from this lack of continuous attention at home to the Far Eastern situation. It has reacted on the consular service; the interpreter service which is absolutely necessary to make our consular corps in China effective has been starved, as no new appointments have been made. In my own case promises of assistance which had been given repeatedly went unfulfilled. In this matter I have not the least personal feeling. I know the result is not due to the personal neglect or ill-will of any man or group of men, only it seems to me to indicate a general sentiment of the unimportance of Far Eastern affairs, which ought to be remedied. I repeat that these statements are not made in aspirit of complaint; all individual members of the Department of State have shown nothing but consideration and readiness to assist, but there has been lacking a concentrated interest in China, which ought to be represented in some one of the high officials, designated to follow up Far Eastern affairs and accorded influence commensurate with responsibilities in this matter.
CHAPTER XXXII
A NATION STRIKES AND UNITES
The students of Peking "started something." For the first time in thousands of years public opinion was aroused and organized in China. Through the action of the students, with whom the merchants made common cause, before and after the Shantung decision, China found herself.
The Japanese papers insisted steadfastly that these student disturbances had been brought on at the "instigation of certain countries." But instigation was not needed. If foreigners had wished to make trouble in this way, they would have been kept extremely busy trying to keep pace with the Chinese themselves. You do not have to instigate a man to resist a pillager who is trying to break into his house. Those who started this tremendous movement toward nationalism—for that is what it grew into—were students in the government schools and in the private schools of Peking and Tientsin. In the beginning the students were alone in the agitation, but not for long. Throughout the agitators were referred to as "students," but this term came to be used in a broad sense; it came to mean Young China, including all of the youth of the land who had been educated in modern schools.
China is the home of the strike and the boycott; but never before had these weapons been employed on such a scale. The merchants and students of north China met during the second half of May, declared a general boycott of Japanese goods, and demanded the dismissal of the three men called traitors, the notorious agents in the Chino-Japanese negotiations. The boycott spread rapidly, a spontaneous expression of deep resentment. But the movement strove also to control and purify the action of the Chinese Government. The instrument for this was the strike—passive resistance—the stopping of the wheels of commerce and industry till the will of the people was listened to.
The popular sense of equity, which in China asserts itself naturally in strikes, responded everywhere. Unless the Government dismissed the three offenders, merchants would close their shops. Teachers, students, shopkeepers, chauffeurs, dockhands, all classes of workmen would strike. All China, indeed, would go on strike.
The movement gained momentum like an avalanche thundering down a mountain. Its fury was first of all concentrated on the attempt to force the dismissal of the three officials who were, in the popular mind, guilty of trading away the national birthright. The organization of the uprising seemed to be almost spontaneous. Active little groups, similar to the Committees of Correspondence in the time of Adams and Franklin, sprang up in all parts of China. The masses of the people were marshalled for action. From the ten thousand students who had originally struck in Shanghai the movement expanded swiftly until it included merchants and chambers of commerce and dozens of other bodies in every walk of life. Associations of servants were formed under the title of The Industrial National Salvation Society. Even Japanese bankers were put under the ban by the Chinese financiers; finally the boycott went so far that it blacklisted the foreign goods which were brought to Chinese ports by Japanese steamers.
In Peking, fifty groups of student speakers were sent out to appeal to the public. General Tuan Chi-jui, who, among others, was held responsible by the students for the nation's troubles, stoutly stood by his subordinates. The militarists in general, feeling that the student movement was not favourable to them, prevailed on the Government to try to suppressit. Martial law was proclaimed, and students trying to speak were arrested. The students were undaunted and working en masse. The Government soon saw that it could imprison them, but that it was powerless to stem the tide of feeling they were creating. Thundering from all parts of the country, it was recognized that the students could, if they chose, turn the entire people against the Government. By June 4th, nearly a thousand students were under forcible detention in Peking; those recently arrested had wisely provided themselves with knapsacks stocked with food before taking their lecture trips.
Then the girl students came forth. They fully shared the patriotic feelings of their brothers. Seven hundred girls from the Peking schools assembled and marched to the President's palace to request the release of the young men under arrest.
The Government made a technical mistake. When the student feeling seemed to be a little on the ebb, the Government took occasion to issue a decree trying to white-wash Tsao Ju-lin and his confederates. That fanned the flame which ultimately swept all over China.
Weakening, the Government offered the students release if they would return to work and make no further trouble. The students saw their advantage, and stated that they had no wish to leave their prisons, if it meant promising to abstain from expressing their opinion in future; moreover, they would not leave until the Government had apologized for their unjust arrest.
The jailing of this large number of the youth of China finally brought such ill-concealed opposition that the Government complied with the students' ultimatum. An apology was offered them, whereupon the students returned to their colleges and their work. But they continued their street lectures, calling upon the people to join in a powerful expression of national opinion through which their country'sinstitutions and policies might be put on a sounder basis, and Japanese aggression powerfully resisted.
In Shanghai the boycott and the strike of the shopkeepers were in full force. Their shops were closed, they threatened to pay no taxes unless the "traitors" were ousted. American officials at Shanghai sent me alarming reports. The British there, particularly those of the official class, were inclined to repress the movement.
The Japanese, who were feeling the full force of the popular thrust, tried to brand it anti-foreign and to reawaken memories of the Boxer period. Some of the influential British in Shanghai, frightened by the successful efforts of the merchants and students among the industrial workers, began to call them anti-foreign, too. I was told that the municipal council in Shanghai might take very stringent action against the boycott and strike. The British minister had gone to the seashore, and I sent him word that the situation was serious.
It would have been the height of folly had either we or the British let ourselves be dragged into the disturbance, which was directed solely against the Japanese, and was fortunately not our concern, and in no sense anti-foreign. I sent specific instructions to the consulate-general at Shanghai advising the American community neither to encourage nor oppose this movement, which was the affair of the Chinese. The Americans saw the point clearly, and realized how undesirable it would be to entangle the municipal council in the business. I told the Consul-General that, illegal and overt acts excepted, the foreign authorities in China had nothing to do with the strike; being happily free of Chinese ill-will, we wished to remain free. In order to avoid all danger of more general trouble, Americans exerted considerable influence with the Chinese leaders to cause them to abstain from action that would tend to involve foreigners generally. They responded willingly.
By this time even the mafoos (horse boys) at the Shanghai Race Club were on strike. A run on the Bank of Communications was started because Tsao Ju-lin was associated with it. More and more serious grew the situation, but the demand on the Government remained unchanged: "When the three traitors are dismissed, the strike will be called off; otherwise, still more people will strike."
The Government finally yielded on the 11th of June. The insistent demand had come from all parts of China that the three unpopular officials go in disgrace. The Peking Government complied. But the great public in Shanghai was not content until the British minister and I gave confirmation of the report that the mandate of dismissal had been issued. Then the strike was off.
However, the boycott against Japanese goods continued unabated. Yet it must not be supposed that the movement, which at the beginning was distinctly turned against Japan, was either essentially anti-Japanese or purely oppositional and negative. Quite early, its true, positive, national Chinese character stood revealed. The Japanese had stung the Chinese national pride to the quick. It turned against them, not in a spirit of blind hostility, but only in so far as the Japanese stood in the way of the national Chinese regeneration.
Out of this unprecedented popular uprising several momentous facts emerged. First, public opinion must be so awakened that it would be a continuing force, so organized that it would at all times have the means of expressing its will, so that it would be able to compel the Government to resist further encroachments on China's rights. That would take time; but it could be done, the strike and boycott proved that. For the first time in her history China had roused herself and wrung from her government a specific surrender. That lesson sank deep. The leaders realized that this single act was merely a very small beginning.But the important thing was that it did constitute a beginning.
The second important result was the sudden focussing of attention on the means by which native Chinese industry might be built up. The boycott of Japanese goods had had a positive as well as a negative side. Indeed it had been stated positively all along. The people were not told to refrain from buying Japanese goods; they were advised to avoid buying goods of an inferior quality—which would be interpreted to mean Japanese products, of course—and they were pointedly urged to patronize home industries. The people responded with a will. They did buy the wares produced by their own factories. It gave great impetus to the development of Chinese industry, and gave both the manufacturers and the Government a clue as to what a definite campaign for the stimulation of the home industries might accomplish.
While we were talking together informally at a meeting of the diplomatic corps, the French minister, M. Boppe, remarked: "We are in the presence of the most astounding and important thing that has ever happened—the organization of a national public opinion in China for positive action."
Thus out of the evil of the Paris decision came an inspiring national awakening of the Chinese people, a welding together for joint thought and joint action. All ranks of the population were affected. When to avoid foreign complications student delegates went among the workers of a factory in Shanghai to persuade them not to strike, the workers asked: "Do you think we have no feeling for our country, nor indignation against the traitors?"
About the evil of the Shantung decision the foreign communities were unanimous, nor did they feel that they ought to be silent. They were on the ground; they knew the inevitable consequences that would follow the rigid application of the decision. They spoke out. Sir Edward Walker, chairman of the Commercial Bank of Canada, gave anaddress on June 6th before the Anglo-American Association of Peking, dealing particularly with the needs of transportation. What the completion of two or three trunk lines would mean to China he fully realized. After his address the British minister and I, who were honorary members, took our leave, as it had been intimated that the Association would discuss the Shantung matter. The meeting then adopted a resolution which expressed the conviction of Americans and British in China in this wise:
We express our solemn conviction that this decision will create conditions that must inevitably bring about extreme discord between the Chinese people and Japan, and raise a most serious hindrance to the development of the economic interests of China and other countries. A settlement which perpetuates the conditions created by Germany's aggression in Shantung in 1898, conditions that led to similar action on the part of other states, that were contributing causes to the disorders in North China in 1900, and that made inevitable the Russo-Japanese war, cannot make for peace in the Far East, for political stability in China itself, or for development of trade and commerce equally open to all.Further, the evil consequences of conditions which are not only subversive of the principle of national self-determination, but also a denial of the policy of the open door and of the principle of equality of opportunity, will be greatly accentuated if Japan, a near neighbour, be now substituted for Germany, whose centre of political and economic activities was on the other side of the globe.Therefore we, the members of the Peking Anglo-American Association, resolve that representations be made to the British and American Governments urging that the states taking part in the Peace Conference devise and carry through a just settlement which will not endanger the safety of China and the peace of the world.
We express our solemn conviction that this decision will create conditions that must inevitably bring about extreme discord between the Chinese people and Japan, and raise a most serious hindrance to the development of the economic interests of China and other countries. A settlement which perpetuates the conditions created by Germany's aggression in Shantung in 1898, conditions that led to similar action on the part of other states, that were contributing causes to the disorders in North China in 1900, and that made inevitable the Russo-Japanese war, cannot make for peace in the Far East, for political stability in China itself, or for development of trade and commerce equally open to all.
Further, the evil consequences of conditions which are not only subversive of the principle of national self-determination, but also a denial of the policy of the open door and of the principle of equality of opportunity, will be greatly accentuated if Japan, a near neighbour, be now substituted for Germany, whose centre of political and economic activities was on the other side of the globe.
Therefore we, the members of the Peking Anglo-American Association, resolve that representations be made to the British and American Governments urging that the states taking part in the Peace Conference devise and carry through a just settlement which will not endanger the safety of China and the peace of the world.
CHAPTER XXXIII
TAKING LEAVE OF PEKING
The Government was now confronted with the question of whether its delegates at Paris should or should not sign the Treaty and Covenant. The Chinese people were opposed to signing, for with China's signature would go specific recognition of the transfer of German rights to Japan. They had learned one great lesson: that to make concessions to foreign powers never got them out of trouble, but only aggravated it. If the Peking officials in 1898 had turned a deaf ear to the German demands, despite threats of naval demonstrations, the Germans could never have secured the things which the Chinese actually gave them. The Chinese people now said: "Never again!"
I was informed on the 28th of May that nearly all the officials in Peking were agreed that the Treaty should be signed. Knowledge of their readiness to capitulate brought the national movement of the Chinese people to its height almost immediately, in opposition to the reactionary militarist control. By the 1st of July, a gentleman from the immediate entourage of the President, who often came to see me on the latter's behalf, told me that the President had instructed the delegates at Paris not to sign the Treaty. They did not sign it then, and steadfastly resisted all efforts to make them sign it later.
When the student troubles were at their height, on the 2nd of June I was at the Legation late one evening to answer some cablegrams. I was interrupted by an American woman teacher who with five Chinese schoolgirls came to my office in a state of great excitement. The girls had stoodwith a crowd for forty-eight hours asking admission to the President's palace to present their grievance. They had endured these hardships as bravely as any of the young men, but they were now alarmed because two of the student leaders had been seized and taken inside the palace. The girls feared their execution, and begged me to intercede. As I could not quiet their apprehensions, I finally said I would direct that an inquiry be made at the palace. By telephone I learned that the students were being detained because they had been too forward in their demonstrations, but that nothing untoward would happen to them. The girls, happy and thankful at this reassurance, went home.
No one could fail to sympathize with the aims and ideals of the students, who were striving for national freedom and regeneration. I, too, felt a strong sympathy, though I, of course, abstained from all direct contact with the movement, as it was a purely Chinese matter. Nevertheless, the Japanese papers reported quite in detail how I had organized the student movement, and how I had spent $2,000,000 in getting it under way. As everybody knew how spontaneous and irrepressible the movement of the students was, these items excited only amusement.
Pessimism reigned among liberal-minded people in early June. They feared that followers of General Tuan would insist upon putting him back into the Premiership, in which case there would be no escape from another revolution to oppose him, with the general demoralization and waste of national resources which would attend it. The secondaide mémoireof the associated representatives was presented to the President by Sir John Jordan on the 5th of June; it conveyed the hope that China's internal difficulties might now come to an end, that the peace conference at Shanghai might be resumed and successfully concluded without delay,and it stated that meanwhile military measures should not be resumed. The friendly advice encouraged the liberal elements, particularly the express desire that there should be no further fighting. It was felt that the President's hands were strengthened for peace.
Dr. Chiang Monlin, Acting Chancellor of Peking University in the absence of Dr. Tsai Yuan-pei, went to Shanghai because the militarist faction wished to hold him responsible for the acts of the students. He was, indeed, one of their chief counsellors, but he counselled wisdom and moderation. He told me that the leaders were conscious of much progress in organizing public opinion, but that at least ten years of further work and experience would be necessary before there could be any approach to a public opinion consciously and unceasingly active in support, or in proper restraint, of the Government. "All we ask," Doctor Chiang said, "is ten years' time—freedom from outside interference—then the New China will be organized."