It will be remembered that Japan made haste to sign the Anglo-German agree ment and that she was so anxious about the matter that she went to some trouble to obtain, both from Germany and England, assurances to the effect that she would de allowed to occupy the same position in respect of the treaty as the original signa~ tories, The combination of haste, anxiety and simplicity, which she displayed on the occasion, combined with the fact that just before Count von Biilow's startling utterance she had officially announced in answer to an interpellation in the Diet that Manchuria was covered by the Anglo-German agreement, makes her feel rather sick now that Germany has announced also officially that the agreement in question does not refer to Manchuria, and that England has not said that it does.
Some of the articles that have been published on the subject in the Japanese Press are furious in tone—not so much against Russia as against Germany _and Europe in general. "The failure of Eng~ land and Germany," says the "Japan Times," the semi-official organ of the Government, "to communicate to the other Powers the very arbitrary sense in Which they meant to interpret the term Chinese territory is nothing short deliberate fraud... England's silence on this important point, if it is not a dec~ sive proof of her acquiescence, is very wu-pleasantly signi it is certainly not calculated to dispel suspicion as to her complicity in a transaction which will for ever remain written deep in the pages of history as a piece of diplomatic jugglery of the blackest kind. The discovery that we have been most shamefully duped has; doubtless been a painful shock to our amour propre and it will make us more careful in the future in our political dealings with Europe."
T may here add that the article from which I quote concludes with the hope and threat "that the Imperial Government will not fail to take such steps as may be found necessary."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.