become classic in the new text-books of political science. All the way
through the twenty-one articles it is easy to see the desire for action,
the love of accomplished facts, struggling with the necessity to observe
the conventions of a stereotyped diplomacy and often overwhelming those
conventions. As the thoughts thicken and the plot develops, the effort
to mask the real intention lying behind every word plainly breaks down,
and a growing exultation rings louder and louder as if the coveted
Chinese prize were already firmly grasped. One sees as it were the
Japanese nation, released from bondage imposed by the Treaties which
have been binding on all nations since 1860, swarming madly through the
breached walls of ancient Cathay and disputing hotly the spoils of
age-old domains.

Group I, which deals with the fruits of victory in Shantung, has little
to detain us since events which have just unrolled there have already
told the story of those demands. In Shantung we have a simple and
easily-understood repeated performance of the history of 1905 and the
settlement of the Russo-Japanese War. Placed at the very head of the
list of demands, though its legitimate position should be after
Manchuria, obviously the purpose of Group I is conspicuously to call
attention to the fact that Japan had been at war with Germany, and is
still at war with her. This flourish of trumpets, after the battle is
over, however, scarcely serves to disguise that the fate of Shantung,
following so hard on the heels of the Russian debacle in Manchuria, is
the great moral which Western peoples are called upon to note. Japan,
determined as she has repeatedly announced to preserve the peace of the
Orient by any means she deems necessary, has found the one and only
formula that is satisfactory--that of methodically annexing everything
worth fighting about.

So far so good. The insertion of a special preamble to Group II, which
covers not only South Manchuria but Eastern Inner Mongolia as well, is
an ingenious piece of work since it shows that the hot mood of conquest
suitable for Shantung must be exchanged for a certain judicial
detachment. The preamble undoubtedly betrays the guiding hand of
Viscount Kato, the then astute Minister of Foreign Affairs, who
saturated in the great series of international undertakings made by
Japan since the first Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902, clearly believes
that the stately Elizabethan manner which still characterizes