is Peace offering of the
19th December, 1916, that a distinct change came. On this document being
formally communicated to the Chinese Government great interest was
aroused, and the old hopes were revived that it would be somehow
possible for China to gain entry at the definitive Peace Congress which
would settle beyond repeal the question of the disposal of Kiaochow and
the whole of German interests in Shantung Province,--a subject of
burning interest to the country not only because of the harsh treatment
which had been experienced at the hands of Japan, but because the
precedent established in 1905 at the Portsmouth Treaty was one which it
was felt must be utterly shattered if China was not to abandon her claim
of being considered a sovereign international State. On that occasion
Japan had simply negotiated direct with Russia concerning all matters
affecting Manchuria, dispatching a Plenipotentiary to Peking, after the
Treaty of Peace had been signed, to secure China's adhesion to all
clauses _en bloc_ without discussion. True enough, by filing the
Twenty-one Demands on China in 1915--when the war was hardly half-a-year
old--and by forcing China's assent to all Shantung questions under the
threat of an Ultimatum, Japan had reversed the Portsmouth Treaty
procedure and apparently settled the issues at stake for all time;
nevertheless the Chinese hoped when the facts were properly known to the
world that this species of diplomacy would not be endorsed, and that
indeed the Shantung question could be reopened.

Consequently great pains were taken at the Chinese Foreign Office to
draft a reply to the Wilson Note which would tell its own story. The
authorized translation of the document handed to the American Legation
on the 8th January has therefore a peculiar political interest. It runs
as follows:--

"I have examined with the care which the gravity of the question
demands the note concerning peace which President Wilson has
addressed to the Governments of the Allies and the Central Powers
now at war and the text of which Your Excellency has been good
enough to transmit to me under instructions of your Government.

"China, a nation traditionally pacific, has recently again
manifested her sentiments in concluding treaties concerning the
pacific settlement of international disputes, responding thus to the
voeux of the Peace Conference held at the Hague.

"On the other hand, the pre