Book: The Fight For The Republic in China

B >> Bertram Lenox Putnam Weale >> The Fight For The Republic in China




The progress of the European War warns Japan with greater urgency of
the imperative necessity of solving this most vital of questions.
The Imperial Government cannot be considered as embarking on a rash
project. This opportunity will not repeat itself for our benefit. We
must avail ourselves of this chance and under no circumstances
hesitate. Why should we wait for the spontaneous uprising of the
revolutionists and malcontents? Why should we not think out and lay
down a plan beforehand? When we examine into the form of Government
in China, we must ask whether the existing Republic is well suited
to the national temperament and well adapted to the thoughts and
aspirations of the Chinese people. From the time the Republic of
China was established up to the present moment, if what it has
passed through is to be compared to what it ought to be in the
matter of administration and unification, we find disappointment
everywhere. Even the revolutionists themselves, the very ones who
first advocated the Republican form of government, acknowledge that
they have made a mistake. The retention of the Republican form of
Government in China will be a great future obstacle in the way of a
Chino-Japanese Alliance. And why must it be so? Because, in a
Republic the fundamental principles of government as well as the
social and moral aims of the people are distinctly different from
that of a Constitutional Monarchy. Their laws and administration
also conflict. If Japan act as a guide to China and China models
herself after Japan, it will only then be possible for the two
nations to solve by mutual effort the Far East Question without
differences and disagreements. Therefore to start from the
foundation for the purpose of reconstructing the Chinese
Government, of establishing a Chino-Japanese Alliance, of
maintaining the permanent peace of the Far East and of realizing the
consummation of Japan's Imperial policy, we must take advantage of
the present opportunity to alter China's Republican form of
Government into a Constitutional Monarchy which shall necessarily be
identical, in all its details, to the Constitutional Monarchy of
Japan, and to no other. This is really the key and first principle
to be firmly held for the actual reconstruction of the form of
Government in China. If China changes her Republican form of
Government to that of a Constitutional Monarchy, shall we, in the
selection of a new ruler, restore the Emperor Hsuan T'ung to his
throne or choose the most capable man from the Monarchists or select
the most worthy member from among the revolutionists? We think,
however, that it is advisable at present to leave this question to
the exigency of the future when the matter is brought up for
decision. But we must not lose sight of the fact that to actually
put into execution this policy of a Chino-Japanese Alliance and the
transformation of the Republic of China into a Constitutional
Monarchy, is, in reality, the fundamental principle to be adopted
for the reconstruction of China.

We shall now consider the bearing of this Defensive Alliance on the
other Powers. Needless to say, Japan and China will in no way impair
the rights and interests already acquired by the Powers. At this
moment it is of paramount importance for Japan to come to a special
understanding with Russia to define our respective spheres in
Manchuria and Mongolia so that the two countries may co-operate with
each other in the future. This means that Japan after the
acquisition of sovereign rights in South Manchuria and Inner
Mongolia will work together with Russia after her acquisition of
sovereign rights in North Manchuria and Outer Mongolia to maintain
the status quo, and endeavour by every effort to protect the peace
of the Far East. Russia, since the outbreak of the European War, has
not only laid aside all ill-feelings against Japan, but has adopted
the same attitude as her Allies and shown warm friendship for us. No
matter how we regard the Manchurian and Mongolian Questions in the
future she is anxious that we find some way of settlement. Therefore
we need not doubt but that Russia, in her attitude towards this
Chinese Question, will be able to come to an understanding with us
for mutual co-operation.

The British sphere of influence and interest in China is centred in
Tibet and the Yangtsze Valley. Therefore if Japan can come to some
satisfactory arrangement with China in regard to Tibet and also give
certain privileges to Great Britain in the Yangtsze Valley, with an
assurance to protect those privileges, no matter how powerful Great
Britain might be, she will surely not oppose Japan's policy in
regard to this Chinese Question. While this present European War is
going on Great Britain has never asked Japan to render her
assistance. That her strength will certainly not enable her to
oppose us in the future need not be doubted in the least.

Since Great Britain and Russia will not oppose Japan's policy
towards China, it can readily be seen what attitude France will
adopt in regard to the subject. What Japan must now somewhat reckon
with is America. But America in her attitude towards us regarding
our policy towards China has already declared the principle of
maintaining China's territorial integrity and equal opportunity and
will be satisfied, if we, do not impair America's already acquired
rights and privileges. We think America will also have no cause for
complaint. Nevertheless America has in the East a naval force which
can be fairly relied upon, though not sufficiently strong to be
feared. Therefore in Japan's attitude towards America there is
nothing really for us to be afraid of.

Since China's condition is such on the one hand and the Powers'
relation towards China is such on the other hand, Japan should avail
herself in the meantime of the European War to definitely decide
upon a policy towards China, the most important move being the
transformation of the Chinese Government to be followed up by
preparing for the conclusion of the Defensive Alliance. The
precipitate action on the part of our present Cabinet in acceding to
the request of Great Britain to declare war against Germany without
having definitely settled our policy towards China has no real
connection with our future negotiations with China or affect the
political condition in the Far East. Consequently all intelligent
Japanese, of every walk of life throughout the land, are very deeply
concerned about the matter.

Our Imperial Government should now definitely change our dependent
foreign policy which is being directed by others into an independent
foreign policy which shall direct others, proclaiming the same with
solemn sincerity to the world and carrying it out with
determination. If we do so, even the gods and spirits will give way.
These are important points in our policy towards China and the
result depends on how we carry them out. Can our authorities firmly
make up their mind to solve this Chinese Question by the actual
carrying out of this fundamental principle? If they show
irresolution while we have this heaven-conferred chance and merely
depend on the good will of the other Powers, we shall eventually
have greater pressure to be brought against the Far East after the
European War is over, when the present equilibrium will be
destroyed. That day will then be too late for us to repent of our
folly. We are therefore impelled by force of circumstances to urge
our authorities to a quicker sense of the situation and to come to a
determination.

The first point which leaps out of this extraordinarily frank
disquisition is that the origin of the Twenty-one Demands is at last
disclosed. A perusal of the ten articles forming the basis of the
Defensive alliance proposed by the Black Dragon Society, allows us to
understand everything that occurred in Peking in the spring of 1915. As
far back as November, 1914, it was generally rumoured in Peking that
Japan had a surprise of an extraordinary nature in her diplomatic
archives, and that it would be merely a matter of weeks before it was
sprung. Comparing this elaborate memorandum of the Black Dragon Society
with the original text of the Twenty-one Demands it is plain that the
proposed plan, having been handed to Viscount Kato, had to be passed
through the diplomatic filters again and again until all gritty matter
had been removed, and an appearance of innocuousness given to it. It is
for this reason that the defensive alliance finally emerges as five
compact little "groups" of demands, with the vital things directly
affecting Chinese sovereignty labelled _desiderata_, so that Japanese
ambassadors abroad could leave very warm assurances at every Foreign
Office that there was nothing in what Japan desired which in any way
conflicted with the Treaty rights of the Powers in China. The air of
mystery which surrounded the whole business from the 18th January to the
7th May--the day of the ultimatum--was due to the fact that Japan
attempted to translate the conspiracy into terms of ordinary
intercourse, only to find that in spite of the "filtering" the
atmosphere of plotting could not be shaken off or the political threat
adequately hidden. There is an arresting piece of psychology in this.

The conviction expressed in the first portion of the Memorandum that
bankruptcy was the rock on which the Peking administration must sooner
or later split, and that the moment which Japan must seize is the
outbreak of insurrections, is also highly instructive in view of what
happened later. Still more subtle is the manner in which the ultimate
solution is left open: it is consistently admitted throughout the mass
of reasoning that there is no means of knowing whether suasion or force
will ultimately be necessary. Force, however, always beckons to Japan
because that is the simplest formula. And since Japan is the
self-appointed defender of the dumb four hundred millions, her influence
will be thrown on the side of the populace in order "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.

The object of the subsidized insurrections is also clearly stated; it is
to alter China's republican form of government into a Constitutional
Monarchy which shall necessarily be identical in all its details to the
Constitutional Monarchy of Japan and to no other. Who the new Emperor is
to be is a point left in suspense, although we may here again recall
that in 1912 in the midst of the revolution Japan privately sounded
England regarding the advisability of lending the Manchus armed
assistance, a proposal which was immediately vetoed. But there are other
things: nothing is forgotten in the Memorandum. Russia is to be
specially placated, England to be specially negotiated with, thus
incidentally explaining Japan's recent attitude regarding the Yangtsze
Railways. Japan, released from her dependent foreign policy, that is
from a policy which is bound by conventions and treaties which others
respect, can then carry out her own plans without fear of molestation.

And this brings us to the two last documents of the dossier--the method
of subsidizing and arranging insurrections in China when and wherever
necessary.

The first document is a detailed agreement between the Revolutionary
Party and various Japanese merchants. Trained leaders are to be used in
the provinces South of the Yellow River, and the matter of result is so
systematized that the agreement specifies the amount of compensation to
be paid for every Japanese killed on active service; it declares that
the Japanese will deliver arms and ammunition in the districts of
Jihchow in Shantung and Haichow in Kiangsu; and it ends by stating that
the first instalment of cash, Yen 400,000, had been paid over in
accordance with the terms of the agreement. The second document is an
additional loan agreement between the interested parties creating a
special "trading" corporation, perhaps satirically named "The Europe and
Asia Trading Company," which in a consideration of a loan of half a
million yen gives Japanese prior rights over all the mines of China.

ALLEGED SECRET AGREEMENT MADE BETWEEN SUN WEN (SUN YAT SEN) AND THE
JAPANESE

In order to preserve the peace in the Far East, it is necessary for
China and Japan to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance
whereby in case of war with any other nation or nations Japan shall
supply the military force while China shall be responsible for the
finances. It is impossible for the present Chinese Government to
work hand in hand with the Japanese Government nor does the Japanese
Government desire to co-operate with the former. Consequently
Japanese politicians and merchants who have the peace of the Far
East at heart are anxious to assist China in her reconstruction. For
this object the following Agreement is entered into by the two
parties:

1. Before an uprising is started, Terao, Okura, Tseji Karoku and
their associates shall provide the necessary funds, weapons and
military force, but the funds so provided must not exceed 1,500,000
yen and rifles not to exceed 100,000 pieces.

2. Before the uprising takes place the loan shall be temporarily
secured by 10,000,000 yen worth of bonds to be issued by Sun Wen
(Sun Yat Sen). It shall however, be secured afterwards by all the
movable properties of the occupied territory. (See Article 14 of
this Agreement.)

3. The funds from the present loan and military force to be provided
are for operations in the provinces South of the Yellow River, viz.:
Yunnan, Kweichow, Hunan, Hupeh, Szechuan, Kiangsi, Anhuei, Kiangsu
Chekiang, Fukien, Kwangsi and Kwangtung. If it is intended to invade
the Northern provinces North of the Yellow River, Tseji Karoku and
his associates shall participate with the revolutionists in all
deliberations connected with such operations.

4. The Japanese volunteer force shall be allowed from the date of
their enrolment active service pay in accordance with the
regulations of the Japanese army. After the occupation of a place,
the two parties will settle the mode of rewarding the meritorious
and compensating the family of the killed, adopting the most
generous practice in vogue in China and Japan. In the case of the
killed, compensation for each soldier shall, at the least, be more
than 1,000 yen.

5. Wherever the revolutionary army might be located the Japanese
military officers accompanying these expeditions shall have the
right to advise a continuation or cessation of operations.

6. After the revolutionary army has occupied a region and
strengthened its defences, all industrial undertakings and railway
construction and the like, not mentioned in the Treaties with other
foreign Powers, shall be worked with joint capital together with the
Japanese.

7. On the establishment of a new Government in China, all Japan's
demands on China shall be recognized by the new Government as
settled and binding.

8. All Japanese Military Officers holding the rank of Captain or
higher ranks engaged by the Chinese revolutionary army shall have
the privilege of being continued in their employment with a limit as
to date and shall have the right to ask to be thus employed.

9. The loan shall be paid over in three instalments. The first
instalment will be 400,000 yen, the second instalment ... yen and
the third instalment ... yen. After the first instalment is paid
over, Okura who advances the loan shall have the right to appoint
men to supervise the expenditure of the money.

10. The Japanese shall undertake to deliver all arms and ammunition
in the Districts of Jih Chao and Haichow (in Shantung and Kiangsu,
South of Kiaochow).

11. The payment of the first instalment of the loan shall be made
not later than three days after the signing of this Agreement.

12. All the employed Japanese Military officers and Japanese
volunteers are in duty bound to obey the orders of the Commander of
the revolutionary army.

13. The Commander of the revolutionary army shall have the right to
send back to Japan those Japanese military officers and Japanese
volunteers who disobey his orders and their passage money shall not
be paid if such decision meets with the approval of three or more of
the Japanese who accompany the revolutionary force.

14. All the commissariat departments in the occupied territory must
employ Japanese experts to co-operate in their management.

15. This Agreement takes effect immediately it is signed by the two
parties.

The foregoing fifteen articles have been discussed several times
between the two parties and signed by them in February. The first
instalment of 400,000 yen has been paid according to the terms of
this Agreement.


LOAN AGREEMENT MADE BETWEEN THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY REPRESENTED BY
CHANG YAO-CHING AND HIS ASSOCIATES OF THE FIRST PART AND KAWASAKI
KULANOSKE OF THE SECOND PART

1. The Europe and Asia Trading Company undertakes to raise a loan of
500,000 yen. After the Agreement is signed and sealed by the
contracting parties the Japanese Central Bank shall hand over 3/10
of the loan as the first instalment. When Chang Yao-Ching and his
associates arrive at their proper destination the sum of 150,000 yen
shall be paid over as the second instalment. When final arrangements
are made the third and last instalment of 200,000 yen shall be paid.

2. When money is to be paid out, the Europe and Asia Trading Company
shall appoint supervisors. Responsible individuals of the
contracting parties shall jointly affix their seals (to the cheques)
before money is drawn for expenditure.

3. The Europe and Asia Trading Company shall secure a volunteer
force of 150 men, only retired officers of the Japanese army to be
eligible.

4. On leaving Japan the travelling expenses and personal effects of
the volunteers shall be borne by themselves. After reaching China,
Chang Yao-Ching and his associates shall give the volunteers the pay
of officers of the subordinate grade according to the established
regulations of the Japanese army.

5. If a volunteer is wounded while on duty Chang Yao-Ching and his
associates shall pay him a provisional compensation of not exceeding
1,000 yen. When wounded seriously a provisional compensation of
5,000 yen shall be paid as well as a life pension in accordance with
the rules of the Japanese army. If a volunteer meets with an
accident, thus losing his life, an indemnity of 50,000 yen shall be
paid to his family.

6. If a volunteer is not qualified for duty Chang Yao-Ching and his
associates shall have the power to dismiss him. All volunteers are
subject to the orders of Chang Yao-Ching and his associates and to
their command in the battlefields.

7. When volunteers are required to attack a certain selected place
it shall be their duty to do so. But the necessary expenses for the
undertaking shall be determined beforehand by both parties after
investigating into existing conditions.

8. The volunteer force shall be organized after the model of the
Japanese army. Two Japanese officers recommended by the Europe and
Asia Trading Company shall be employed.

9. The Europe and Asia Trading Company shall have the power to
dispose of the public properties in the places occupied by the
volunteer force.

10. The Europe and Asia Trading Company shall have the first
preference for working the mines in places occupied and protected by
the volunteer force.

And here ends this extraordinary collection of papers. Is fiction mixed
with fact--are these only "trial" drafts, or are they real documents
signed, sealed, and delivered? The point seems unimportant. The thing of
importance is the undoubted fact that assembled and treated in the way
we have treated them they present a complete and arresting picture of
the aims and ambitions of the ordinary Japanese; of their desire to push
home the attack to the last gasp and so to secure the infeodation of
China.




CHAPTER VIII

THE MONARCHIST PLOT

THE PAMPHLET OF YANG TU


A shiver of impotent rage passed over the country when the nature and
acceptance of the Japanese Ultimatum became generally known. The
Chinese, always an emotional people, responding with quasi-feminine
volubility to oppressive acts, cried aloud at the ignominy of the
diplomacy which had so cruelly crucified them. One and all declared that
the day of shame which had been so harshly imposed upon them would never
be forgotten and that Japan would indeed pay bitterly for her policy of
extortion.

Two movements were started at once: one to raise a National Salvation
Fund to be applied towards strengthening the nation in any way the
government might decide; the other, to boycott all Japanese articles of
commerce. Both soon attained formidable proportions. The nation became
deeply and fervently interested in the double-idea; and had Yuan
Shih-kai possessed true political vision there is little doubt that by
responding to this national call he might have ultimately been borne to
the highest pinnacles of his ambitions without effort on his part. His
oldest enemies now openly declared that henceforth he had only to work
honourably and whole-heartedly in the nation's interest to find them
supporting him, and to have every black mark set against his name wiped
out.

In these circumstances what did he do? His actions form one of the most
incredible and, let it be said, contemptible chapters of contemporary
history.

In dealing with the origins of the Twenty-one Demands we have already
discussed the hints the Japan Representative had officially made when
presenting his now famous Memorandum. Briefly Yuan Shih-kai had been
told in so many words that since he was already autocrat of all the
Chinese, he had only to endorse the principle of Japanese guidance in
his administration to find that his Throne would be as good as publicly
and solidly established. Being saturated with the doleful diplomacy of
Korea, and seeing in these proposals a mere trap, Yuan Shih-kai, as we
have shown, had drawn back in apparent alarm. Nevertheless the words
spoken had sunk in deep, for the simple and excellent reason that ever
since the _coup d'etat_ of the 4th November, 1913, the necessity of
"consolidating" his position by something more permanent than a display
of armed force had been a daily subject of conversation in the bosom of
his family. The problem, as this misguided man saw it, was simply by
means of an unrivalled display of cunning to profit by the Japanese
suggestion, and at the same time to leave the Japanese in the lurch.

His eldest son, an individual of whom it has been said that he had
absorbed every theory his foreign teachers had taught him without being
capable of applying a single one, was the leader in this family
intrigue. The unhappy victim of a brutal attempt to kill him during the
Revolution, this eldest son had been for years semi-paralyzed: but
brooding over his disaster had only fortified in him the resolve to
succeed his father as legitimate Heir. Having saturated himself in
Napoleonic literature, and being fully aware of how far a bold leader
can go in times of emergency, he daily preached to his father the
necessity of plucking the pear as soon as it was ripe. The older man,
being more skilled and more cautious in statecraft than this youthful
visionary, purposely rejected the idea so long as its execution seemed
to him premature. But at last the point was reached when he was
persuaded to give the monarchy advocates the free hand they solicited,
being largely helped to this decision by the argument that almost
anything in China could be accomplished under cover of the war,--_so
long as vested foreign interests were not jeopardized_.

In accordance with this decision, very shortly after the 18th January,
the dictator's lieutenants had begun to sound the leaders of public
opinion regarding the feasibility of substituting for the nominal
Republic a Constitutional Monarchy. Thus, in a highly characteristic
way, all through the tortuous course of the Japanese negotiations, to
which he was supposed to be devoting his sole attention in order to save
his menaced fatherland, Yuan Shih-kai was assisting his henchmen to
indoctrinate Peking officialdom with the idea that the salvation of the
State depended more on restoring on a modified basis the old empire than
in beating off the Japanese assault. It was his belief that if some
scholar of national repute could be found, who would openly champion
these ideas and urge them with such persuasiveness and authority that
they became accepted as a Categorical Imperative, the game would be as
good as won, the Foreign Powers being too deeply committed abroad to pay
much attention to the Far East. The one man who could have produced that
result in the way Yuan Shih-kai desired to see it, the brilliant
reformer Liang Chi-chao, famous ever since 1898, however, obstinately
refused to lend himself to such work; and, sooner than be involved in
any way in the plot, threw up his post of Minister of Justice and
retired to the neighbouring city of Tientsin from which centre he was
destined to play a notable part.

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