ought
to obtain it by negotiations that lasted nearly four months, finally
presented an ultimatum,[251] giving China forty-eight hours in which to
accept it. She had no alternative. But at least she made it known to the
world that she was being coerced. It was on the day on which that
document was signed that the Japanese representative in Peking sent a
spontaneous declaration to the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs,
promising to return the leased territory to China on condition that all
Kiaochow be opened as a commercial port, that a Japanese settlement be
established, and also an international settlement, if the Powers desired
it, and that an arrangement be made beforehand between the Chinese and
Japanese governments with regard to "the disposal of German public
establishments and populations, and with regard to other conditions and
procedures."

The Japanese further invoked another and later agreement, which was,
they alleged, signed by the Chinese without demur.[252] This accord,
coming after the entry of China into the war, was tantamount to the
renunciation of any rights which China might have believed she possessed
as a corollary of her belligerency. It also disposed, the Japanese
argued, of her contention that the territory in question is
indispensable and vital to her--a contention which Japan met with the
promise to deliver it up--and which was invalidated by China's refusal
to fight for it in the year 1914. This latter argument was controverted
by the Chinese assertion that they were ready and willing to declare war
against Germany at the outset, but that their co-operation was refused
by the Entente, and subsequently by Japan. This allegation is credible,
if we remember the eagerness exhibited by the British government that
Japan should lose no time in co-operating with her allies, the
representations made by the British Ambassador to Baron Kato on the
subject,[253] and the alleged motive to prevent the retrocession of
Shantung to China by the German government.

The arguments of China and Japan were summarily put in the following
questions by a delegate of each country: "Yes or no, does Kiaochow,
whose population is exclusively Chinese, form an integral part of the
Chinese state? Yes or no, was Kiaochow brutally occupied by the Kaiser
in the teeth of right and justice and to the detriment of the peace of
the Far East, and it may be of the world? Yes or no, did Japan enter the
war against the aggressive