her own resources to-morrow she would surely fall a prey to her Western protectors.  In this connection they point to an incident which took place during the Conference, when Signor Tittoni demanded that Italy should receive the Austrian concession in Tientsin, which adjoins the Italian concession.  But Viscount Chinda protested and the demand was ruled out.  To sum up, the broad maxim underlying Japan’s policy as defined by her own representatives is that in the resettlement of the world the principle adopted, whether the old or the new, shall be applied fairly and impartially at least to all the Great Powers.

Every world conflict has marked the close of one epoch and the opening of another.  Into the melting-pot on the fire kindled by the war many momentous problems have been flung, any one of which would have sufficed to bring about a new political, economic, and social constellation.  Japan’s advance along the road of progress is one of these far-ranging innovations.  She became a Great Power in the wars against China and Russia, and is qualifying for the part of a World Power to-day.  And her statesmen affirm that in order to achieve her purpose she will recoil from no sacrifice except those of honor and of truth.

FOOTNOTES: 

[244] Novoye Vremya, June 13-26, 1915.

[245] Cf. The Problem of Asia (Capt.  A.T.  Mahan), pp. 150-151.

[246] The late President of the Chinese Republic.

[247] These demands were (1) an apology from the Chinese authorities; (2) an indemnity for the killed and wounded; (3) the policing of certain districts of Manchuria by the Japanese; and (4) the employment of Japanese officers to train Chinese troops in Manchuria.

[248] Minister of Foreign Affairs.  He repudiated his predecessor’s policy.

[249] November 8th.

[250] May 25, 1915.

[251] On May 6, 1915.

[252] On September 24, 1918.

[253] On August 7, 1914.

[254] Cf. Le Matin, April 25, 1919.

[255] Le Matin, April 23, 1919.

[256] “His Majesty’s Government accede with pleasure to the requests of the Japanese Government for assurances that they will support Japan’s claims in regard to the disposal of Germany’s rights in Shantung, and possessions in islands north of the Equator, on the occasion of a Peace Conference, it being understood that the Japanese Government will, in the event of a peace settlement, treat in the same spirit Great Britain’s claims to German islands south of the Equator.” (Signed) Conyngham Greene, British Ambassador, Tokio, February 16, 1917.  France gave a similar assurance in writing on March 1, 1917, and the Russian government had made a like declaration on February 20, 1917.

[257] As a matter of fact, the entire world knew and knows that she had guaranteed the retrocession.  Baron Makino declared it at the Conference.  Cf. The (London) Times, February 13, 1919; also on May 5, 1919; and Viscount Uchida confirmed it on May 17, 1919.  It had also been stated in the Japanese ultimatum to Germany, August 15, 1914, and repeated by Viscount Uchida at the beginning of August, 1919.