ginal form was a more vicious assault
on Chinese sovereignty than the Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia of June,
1914), was so remodelled as to convey a very different meaning, the
group heading disappearing entirely and an innocent-looking exchange of
notes being asked for. It is necessary to recall that, when taxed with
making Demands which were entirely in conflict with the spirit of the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the Japanese Government through its ambassadors
abroad had categorically denied that they had ever laid any such Demands
on the Chinese Government. It was claimed that there had never been
twenty-one Demands, as the Chinese alleged, but only fourteen, _the
seven items of Group V being desiderata which it was in the interests of
China to endorse but which Japan had no intention of forcing upon her_.
The writer, being acquainted from first to last with everything that
took place in Peking from the 18th January to the filing of the Japanese
ultimatum of the 7th May, has no hesitation in stigmatizing this
statement as false. The whole aim and object of these negotiations was
to force through Group V. Japan would have gladly postponed _sine die_
the discussion of all the other Groups had China assented to provisions
which would have made her independence a thing of the past. Every
Chinese knew that, in the main, Group V was simply a repetition of the
measures undertaken in Korea after the Russo-Japanese war of 1905 as a
forerunner to annexation; and although obviously in the case of China no
such rapid surgery could be practised, the endorsement of these measures
would have meant a virtual Japanese Protectorate. Even a cursory study
of the text that follows will confirm in every particular these capital
contentions:

JAPAN'S REVISED DEMANDS

Japan's Revised Demands on China, twenty-four in all, presented
April 26, 1915.

_Note on original text_:

[The revised list of articles is a Chinese translation of the
Japanese text. It is hereby declared that when a final decision is
reached, there shall be a revision of the wording of the text.]

GROUP I

The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, being desirous
of maintaining the general peace in Eastern Asia and further
strengthening the friendly relations and good neighbourhood existing
between the two nations, agree to the following articles:--

Article 1. The Chinese Government engages to give full assen