The: first news of the demands} was telegraphed to us by our: Peking correspondent on January 26 in & message which opened with the startling announcement, that acute tension existed between China and Japan owing to the presentation by the latter of a set] of demands calculated, if complied with, to give Japan the whip hand in the country." The year had begun somewhat sensationally, it will be remembered, for on Janbary 7 Chins officially informed Japan of the abolition of! the Shantung war zone and Japan immediately protested. The news of the demands, therefore, fell on an audience already a little tense and gained the whole of its attention. What the demands were our correspondent was unable in his first message to say. It was known only that they numbered twenty-one and embraced questions of territory and special privileges regarding railways and mines in Manchuria, Eastern Mongolia, Shantung, the Yangtze Valley and Fukien. On the following day a little more light was thrown on them. They were said to include a demand for an extension of the lease of Port Arthur to ninety-nine years. extensive mining and industrial tights in Shantung, Kiangsi Anhui, Hunan, South Manchuria/ and Mongolia and @ concession for the construction of a railway from Lungkow to Weihsien and for certain other lines. A flat denial of the accuracy of this news was published by the Kokusai Agency in Tokio on January 29 in terms that deserve to be placed on record. "The (Kokusei Agency." ran the message, "'is in a position to state on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.