“At the Plenary Session of the Peace Conference this afternoon Baron
   Makino spoke of his proposed amendment to the Covenant declaring
   ‘racial equality,’ but said he would not press it.

“I concluded from what the President said to me that he was disposed to accede to Japan’s claims in regard to Kiao-Chau and Shantung.  He also showed me a letter from ——­ to Makino saying he was sorry their claims had not been finally settled before the Session.

   “From all this I am forced to the conclusion that a bargain has been
   struck by which the Japanese agree to sign the Covenant in exchange
   for admission of their claims.  If so, it is an iniquitous agreement.

“Apparently the President is going to do this to avoid Japan’s declining to enter the League of Nations.  It is a surrender of the principle of self-determination, a transfer of millions of Chinese from one foreign master to another.  This is another of those secret arrangements which have riddled the ‘Fourteen Points’ and are wrecking a just peace.

“In my opinion it would be better to let Japan stay out of the League than to abandon China and surrender our prestige in the Far East for ’a mess of pottage’—­and a mess it is.  I fear that it is too late to do anything to save the situation.”

Mr. White, General Bliss, and I, at our meeting that morning before the plenary session, and later when we conferred as to what had taken place at the session, were unanimous in our opinions that China’s rights should be sustained even if Japan withdrew from the Peace Conference.  We were all indignant at the idea of submitting to the Japanese demands and agreed that the President should be told of our attitude, because we were unwilling to have it appear that we in any way approved of acceding to Japan’s claims or even of compromising them.

General Bliss volunteered to write the President a letter on the subject, a course which Mr. White and I heartily endorsed.

The next morning the General read the following letter to us and with our entire approval sent it to Mr. Wilson: 

   “Hotel de Crillon, Paris

   “April 29, 1919

   “MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: 

“Last Saturday morning you told the American Delegation that you desired suggestions, although not at that moment, in regard to the pending matter of certain conflicting claims between Japan and China centering about the alleged German rights.  My principal interest in the matter is with sole reference to the question of the moral right or wrong involved.  From this point of view I discussed the matter this morning with Mr. Lansing and Mr. White.  They concurred with me and requested me to draft a hasty note to you on the subject.

   “Since your conference with us last Saturday, I have asked myself
   three or four Socratic questions the answers to which make me,
   personally, quite sure on which side the moral right lies.