ugh them? This question must be definitely decided upon this
very moment so that we may put it into practical execution. If we do
not look into the future fate of China but go blindly to uphold
Yuan's Government, to enter into a Defensive Alliance with China,
hoping thus to secure a complete realization of our object by
assisting him to suppress the revolutionists, it is obviously a
wrong policy. Why? Because the majority of the Chinese people have
lost all faith in the tottering Yuan Shih-kai who is discredited and
attacked by the whole nation for having sold his country. If Japan
gives Yuan the support, his Government, though in a very precarious
state, may possibly avoid destruction. Yuan Shih-kai belongs to that
school of politicians who are fond of employing craftiness and
cunning. He may be friendly to us for a time, but he will certainly
abandon us and again befriend the other Powers when the European war
is at an end. Judging by his past we have no doubt as to what he
will do in the future. For Japan to ignore the general sentiment of
the Chinese people and support Yuan Shih-kai with the hope that we
can settle with him the Chinese Question is a blunder indeed.
Therefore in order to secure the permanent peace of the Far East,
instead of supporting a Chinese Government which can neither be long
continued in power nor assist in the attainment of our object, we
should rather support the 400,000,000 Chinese people to renovate
their corrupt Government, to change its present form, to maintain
peace and order in the land and to usher into China a new era of
prosperity so that China and Japan may in fact as well as in name be
brought into the most intimate and vital relations with each other.
China's era of prosperity is based on the China-Japanese Alliance
and this Alliance is the foundational power for the repelling of the
foreign aggression that is to be directed against the Far East at
the conclusion of the European war. This alliance is also the
foundation-stone of the peace of the world. Japan therefore should
take this as the last warning and immediately solve this question.
Since the Imperial Japanese Government has considered it imperative
to support the Chinese people, we should induce the Chinese
revolutionists, the Imperialists and other Chinese malcontents to
create troub