WHO ARE THE HUNS?

Chinese Neutrality and Kiao-Chau. 69
in the shortest possible time had it desired anything of the
sort—that Germany cherished not the slightest aggressive
intentions against either England or China—least, of all,
naturally, against Japan. The Japanese Charge d'Affaires was
at once informed that in the event of Japanese neutrality, the
German squadron in East Asia would refrain from any hostile
action in the waters there.
The most remarkable thing, however, was the intimation
that Germany was threatening the independence and integrity
of the Chinese Empire and the principle of the Open Door,
and thereby imperilling the peace of East Asia and the territorial
rights of other nations in East Asia. Japan and England
resemble each other in their policies and in their skill in converting
the most villainous and scoundrelly acts into something
ethically correct, nay, even something magnanimous and
noble !
Let any man consider and estimate the relative military
strength of both sides in East Asia, and then—let us still keep our
patience and our calmness!—judge the shamelessness of this
wanton trifling with the rights of nations of which Japan has
been guilty—an act that seems almost like a mockery of Germany
and the entire world. And Germany had never once thought
of ignoring the territorial rights of the contracting parties in
the regions of East Asia or of India—and had made this perfectly
clear on more than one occasion. 1 But England, according
to her own official declaration, also longed "to strike a deadly
blow" at Germany in the matter of her colonies. This, and
this alone is the truth—and not the rank invention that
1 Dr. Carson Chany, a prominent Chinese journalist, in a flaming protest
now declares that the present policy of Japan and its 20 demands made upon
China, is an act of aggression hitherto unheard of in the history of the world
and directed against a people who are living in absolute peace with Japan.
Chany is entirely in the right, when he says:
"Although the Japanese demands were first directed against China, their
contents are such that their realization will cause all other states to be involved.
The policy hitherto maintained by these in Asia was based upon the principle
of the integrity and independence of China, and that of the open door. This
was expressly confirmed in the agreement between Japan and France in .July,
1907, in the notes exchanged between the United States and Japan in November,
1908, and in the revised treaty of alliance between England and Japan in
July, 1911." (rewanslation)