JaPaN approached China at the beginning of the year 1920 with many unsettled issues and with an anti-Japanese boycott still reproduction prohibited without permission. functioning. The Shantung question was the most important. On January 20 it was reported that Mr. Obata had notified the Chinese Government that, in accordance with the Peace Treaty, Japan had succeeded to Germany's rights in Shantung, and that it would be wisest if representatives be appointed by the two countries for direct negotiations for the return of the territory to China. He said that Japan would be willing to withdraw her railroad guards in Shantung province. This created a storm throughout the country with a demand for submission of the question to the League of Nations, and that it should be dealt with in no other way. In February, the President sent a circular telegram to the officials in the Provinces asking for their opinion with regard to direct negotiations. Men as diverse as General Wu Pei-fu and Tuchun Wang Chan-yuan favoured submitting the entire question to the Teague. By May 18, the Cabinet' came to a definite decision not to negotiate directly with Japan on the Shantung issue, and there the matter stands. Mr, Wellington Koo, Chinese Delegate to the League of Nations, who has recently been elected to the Council of the League, has been instructed to raise the Shantung question before that body.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.