Very few Occidentals, even at this late date, have any idea of justifying the notorious* "21 Demands." Those of us who were here in 1915 are still almost as indignant as the Chinese themselves about what) was them an outrage against China and an act of treachery against the Allies then so deeply involved in the European war. This will never be forgotten by either Occidentals. or Chinese. Very few Japanese indeed are any longer prepared to justify the "21 Demands." They belong to an era of military control of diplomacy which Japan is trying to forget and live down.
True as this may be of the "21 Demands" of 1915, conditions in thig country have changed materially and there are probably no foreign business men in Chinn who do not feel that Japan is perfectly justified in this season of disorder and political disintegration in China, in retaining her control of Dairen, Port Arthur, the Kuantung leased territory and any authority which she may exercise over the South Manchurian Railway zone. If there bed the "97 Demands" had been ever been any "21 Demands,"
abrogated at. Washington, we should still feel at this juncture that the Japanese were morally justified in refusing to resign the control of such Chinese territory og she occupies or governs to any group of Chinese officials.
This opinion does not in any sense infringe upon China's technical right. The Waichiaopu was perfectly justified in March of this year in notifying the Japanese that the extensions of the Kuantung leases had been extracted from the Thinese Government by threats.of violepte and that the extended agreements were therefore not morally binding upon the Chinese Government or people. But, considering the state of the country, no group of Chinese, least of all an official group in Peking largely responsible for shaking down the last semblance of Government in the Capital, has any right, moral or otherwise, to expect Japan to consider seriously a proposition for the return to Chinese sovereignty of any territory within which the Japanese are in a position to maintain peace and order, insure safety of life and property, and guarantee to all persons, Chinese, Japanese and Occidentals, unmolested trade.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.