ent of Japan.

What actually happened at the Peace Table is still a secret, and
President Wilson, who knows its nature, holds that it is in the best
interests of humanity that it should so remain! The little that has as
yet been disclosed comes mainly from State-Secretary Lansing's answers
to the questions put by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
America's second delegate, in answer to the questions with which he was
there plied, affirmed that "President Wilson alone approved the Shantung
decision, that the other members of the American delegation made no
protest against it, and that President Wilson alone knows whether Japan
has guaranteed to return Shantung to China."[257] Another eminent
American, who claims to have been present when President Wilson's act
was officially explained to the Chinese delegates, states that the
President, disclosing to them his motives, pleaded that political
exigencies, the menace that Japan would abandon the Conference, and the
rumor that England herself might withdraw, had constrained him to accept
the Shantung settlement in order to save the League.[258] Rumors appear
to have played an undue part in the Conference, influencing the judgment
or the decisions of the Supreme Council. The reader will remember that
it was a rumor to the effect that the Italian government had already
published a decree annexing Fiume that is alleged to have precipitated
the quarrel between Mr. Wilson and the first Italian delegation. It is
worth noting that the alleged menace that Japan would quit the
Conference if her demands were rejected was not regarded by Secretary
Lansing as serious. "Could Japan's signature to the League have been
obtained without the Shantung decision?" he was asked. "I think so," he
answered.

The decision caused tremendous excitement among the Chinese and their
numerous friends. At first they professed skepticism and maintained that
there must be some misunderstanding, and finally they protested and
refused to sign the Treaty. One of the American journals published in
Paris wrote: "Shantung was at least a moral explosion. It blew down the
front of the temple, and now everybody can see that behind the front
there was a very busy market. The morals were the morals of a horse
trade. If the muezzin were loud and constant in his calls to prayer, it
probably was to drown the sound of the dickering in the market. There is
no longer any obligation upon this nation to accept the Coven