Jan, 27.
We must confess, though with great reluctance, to a feeling of disappointment in reading Viscount Uchida's speech at the opening of the Japanese Diet. It appears tous to be unnecessarily loaded with protestations, as that Japan ''will be one of those States which will strictly garry out every term of the (peace) treaty that she is ''determined that right and justice shall be her guiding principle in her dealing with other nations'; and so forth. Surely it goes, or should go, without saying, that a great Power, one truly worthy of the name, will strictly carry out all pledges to which it has subscribed, and that it is guided first by right and justice in, its dealings with other nations. Any suggestion to the contrary it would surely treat as beneath its dignity to notice. Viscount Uchida must forgive us for thinking that he speaks as if he were not quite sure of his position. He cannot be surprised his readers are inevitably reminded of the. Queen's saying in "Hamlet", Methinks the lady does protest too much."
His references to the settlement contemplated in the Shantung question leave not a little to be desired in respect of clarity. It stands to reason that on the eve of negotiation with China, the Japanese Foreign Minister can hardly state explicitly what Japan is prepared to do. But it must be remembered that Japan's intentions in this quarter have been the subject of world-wide controversy, and the suggestion he conveys is so very much less than the documents he quotes entitle Japan to demand, and than what China seems to have made up her mind she must concede, that the speech necessarily conveys an uneasy suggestion of having -been made for foreign edification. The following sentence epitomizes Japan's attitude as defined by Viscount Uchida _"The "so-called Shantung question comprises, in the main, the questions pertaining to the leased territory of Kiaochou and the Shantung railway. One is to be restored to China, while the other is to be worked under the joint enterprise of both countries in accordance with the terms of the Sino-Japanese agreement of 1913.""
What on the face of it is a very fair statement. But what exactly is meant by the leased territory of Kiaochou? Neither here nor at any point in the speech as reported by Reuter*(who would hardly omit so important a matter) is the name of Tsingtao mentioned. Under the Twenty-one Demands which China was obliged to concede in May, 1915, there is to be "'a concession under the exclusive jurisdiction of Japan to be established at a place design nated by the Japanese Government.""" And unless popular report is very badly misinformed, the Japanese have been actively engaged for the past two or three years in collecting everything at Tsingtao worth having into the' concession it is proposed to designate. Even if this be not so, the omission of any reference to Tsingtao -is a serious defect; Viscount Uchida alludes with regret to "some foreign critics who remain under the erroneous impression that the whole province of Shantung"' is involved in the Shantung question. We do not know who they are., But referring again to the Twenty-one Demands, we find that China pledge ed herself that ''within the province of Shantung or along its coast no territory or island will be leased or ceded to any foreign Power under any pretext"; and that if China wants to build a railway from Chefoo or Lungkow to the Tsinanfu railway, Japan is to have the right of supplying her with the money. In these'circumstances foreign critics have some excuse for misunderstanding.
But the parts of Viscount Uchida's speech which will, perhaps, be least liked abroad are its allusions to the "'anti-Japanese movement' in China and '"'the persecution to which our countrymen are subjected at the hands of the Chinese."' Curiously enough, as regards the alleged persecution, precisely the opposite- impression
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.