Part 30 (2/2)

And I would like, if I aht in your mind I was one of the first advocates of theover any more territory than has already been handed over to any sovereign I do not believe in putting the people of the German territories at the disposition, unsubordinated disposition, of any great power, and therefore I was a warm advocate of the idea of General smuts--who, by the way, is an extraordinary person--who propounded the theory that the pieces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the pieces of the Turkish Empire and the German colonies were all political units or territorial units which ought to be accepted in trust by the family of nations, and not turned over to any ue of Nations would have as one of its chief functions to act as trustee for these great areas of dis moment ca to accept aI have got to say off-hand that in the present state of American opinion, at any rate, it wants to observe what I may call without offense Pharisaical cleanliness and not take anything out of the pile It is its point of pride that it does not want to see even by way of superintendence And of course they said: ”That is very disappointing, for this reason” (The reason they stated in as complimentary terms as I could have stated it myself): ”You would be the most acceptable mandatory to any one of these peoples, and very few of us, if any, would be acceptable” They said that in so reatly advance the peace of the world and the peace of mind of Europe if the United States would accept o home and stump the country and see if they will do it,” but I could not truthfully say off-hand that they would, because I did not knohat I wanted to suggest is this: Personally, and just within the liht to I think there is a very proard to countries like Ared for Ars than they know about any other European area; we have colleges out there; we have great e in Constantinople

That is a part of the world where already A and an uplifting influence

Colleges like Beirut in Syria have spread their influence very h the Arabian country and Mesopotamia and in the distant parts of Asia Minor, and I am not without hope that the people of the United States would find it acceptable to go in and be the trustee of the interests of the Armenian people and see to it that the unspeakable Turk and the alh to teach theive the industrious and earnest people of Armenia time to develop a country which is naturally rich with possibilities

Now the place where they all want us to accept a mandate most is at Constantinople I may say that it seems to be rather the consensus of opinion there that Constantinople ought to be internationalized So that the present idea apparently is to delimit the territory around Constantinople to include the Straits and set up a mandate for that territory which will make those Straits open to the nations of the world without any conditions and make Constantinople truly international--an internationalized free city and a free port--and America is the only nation in the world that can undertake that mandate and have the rest of the world believe that it is undertaken in good faith that we do not nty So that it would be a very serious matter for the confidence of the world in this treaty if the United States did not accept a est is that questions of that sort ought to be ventilated very thoroughly This will appeal to the people of the United States: Are you going to take advantage of this and not any of the burden? Are you going to put the burden on the bankrupt states of Europe? For almost all of them are bankrupt in the sense that they cannot undertake any new things I think that will appeal to the Aht to take the burdens--for they are burdens nobody is going to get anything out of a mandatory of Constantinople or Armenia It is a work of disinterested philanthropy

And if you first present that idea and then o in as a mandatory, I think that the people will respond If ent in at Constantinople, for example, I think it is true that almost all the influential raduates of Robert College would be immediately susceptible to Auidance when they would not take any other guidance

But I wish I could stay ho I would like to do so e what I think of the people that are opposing it I would reserve the right in private to say in unparliae what I think of thee Because of all the blind and little, provincial people, they are the littlest and most contemptible It is not their character so h that conteot even good working imitations of minds They remind me of a man with a head that is not a head but is just a knot providentially put there to keep hi out, but why the Lord should not have been willing to let them ravel out I do not know, because they are of no use, and if I could really say what I think about them, it would be picturesque But the beauty of it is that their ignorance and their provincialism can be o beyond their parish; they do not even reach to the edges of the parish, because the other people know ainst the to have the ibbets that they are going to be executed on by future historians will scrape the heavens, they will be so high They won't be turned in the direction of heaven at all, but they will be very tall, and I do not know any fate ue of the men who are utterly condemned by the whole spirit of humanity If I did not despise them, I would be sorry for theht On the fifth of March, 1921, I aain instead of an active publicabout these gentlemen without any restraints of propriety The President, if my experience is a standard, is liable soases Anybody in the Senate or House can say any abusive thing he pleases about the President, but it shocks the sense of propriety of the whole country if the President says what he thinks about them And that makes it very fortunate that the term of the President is limited, because no president could stand it for a nu to resume my study of the dictionary to find adequate terentleet anywhere but run around in a circle and think they are going soence, but because I think I know the people of the United States, I can predict their future with absolute certainty I a at all, not for a ht about immediately, just as promptly as possible So my hope is that ill all put on our war paint, not as Deet the true Ao out on the war path and get a collection of scalps that has never been excelled in the history of American warfare

CHAPTER xxxVIII

japAN--SHANTUNG

One of the settlements embodied in the Versailles Treaty upon which the enemies of the President in this country concentrated their fires of wrath and hatred against the President was the so-called Shantung settle the irreconcilable antagonis they could to intensify this antagonis to japan at the expense of helpless China

Not love of China, but hatred of Woodrow Wilson led partisan Republicans, without careful investigation of the actual situation, to seize on the Shantung affair as an opportunity to enorances and prejudices of many of our people on the subject of China played into the hands of those Republicans, whose main object was to injure the President and defeat the Treaty Very few sought to understand the settleround of it

These facts were clearly set forth by the President hieles, California, on September 20, 1919 The President said:

Let me recall sootten I have to go back to the year 1898, for it was in March of that year that these cessions which fored to Germany were transferred to her by the Government of China What had happened was that two German missionaries in China had beenthat was in its power to do to quiet the local disturbances, to allay the local prejudice against foreigners which led to the murders, but had been unable to do so, and the German Government held them responsible, nevertheless, for the murder of the missionaries It was not the missionaries that the German Government was interested in That was a pretext Ger had happened for which the Peking Government could not really with justice be held responsible, a very large and important part of one of the richest provinces of China should be ceded to her for sovereign control, for a period of 99 years, that she should have the right to penetrate the interior of that province with a railway, and that she should have the right to exploit any ores that lay within 30Governratitude to the German Government for certain services which she was supposed to have rendered but never did render That was the beginning I do not knohether any of the gentle settlement were in public affairs at that time or not, but I will tell you what happened, so far as this Governhtened and humane presidents we have ever had was at the head of the Government--William McKinley, a man who loved his fellow men and believed in justice--and associated with him was one of our ablest secretaries of state--Mr John Hay The state of international laas such then that they did not feel at liberty to ainst these concessions to Germany Neither did theythat, similar concessions were made to Russia, to Great Britain, and to France It was alranted to Russia the right of the possession and control of Port Arthur and a portion of the region of Talienwan Then England, not wishi+ng to be outdone, although she had sihts elsewhere in China, insisted upon a siot Weihaiwei Then France insisted that she ainst one of those did the Government of the United States make any protest whatever

They only insisted that the door should not be shut in any of these regions against the trade of the United States You have heard of Mr

Hay's policy of the open door That was his policy of the open door-- not the open door to the rights of China, but the open door to the goods of America I want you to understand,this because, until we adopt the Covenant of the League of Nations, it is an unfriendly act for any government to interfere in the affairs of any other unless its own interests are i Mr McKinley and Mr Hay were at liberty to do was to call attention to the fact that the trade of the United States ht be unfavourably affected and insist that in no circuot from all of these powers the promise that it should not be a pro that came the war between Russia and japan, and at the close of that war japan got Port Arthur and all the rights which Russia enjoyed in China, just as she is now getting Shantung and the rights her recently defeated enemy had in China--an exactly siave her Port Arthur was concluded, as you know, on the territory of the United States--at Portsainst that japan had beaten Russia

Port Arthur did not at that tied for the period of the lease to Russia, and japan was ceded what japan had taken by the well-recognized processes of war

Very well, at the opening of this war, japan went and took Kiauchow and supplanted Ger Province The whole process is repeated, but repeated with a new sanction In the land and France, not at the sa that it was essential that they should have the assistance of japan on the Pacific, agreed that if japan would go into this war and take whatever Ger north of the equator which had belonged to Germany

That treaty now stands That treaty absolutely binds Great Britain and France Great Britain and France can not in honour, having offered japan this inducement to enter the war and continue her operations, consent to an eli provision froentle settleht Great Britain and France and japan, ill have to stand together, in order to get this province back for China? I know they are not, and their interest in China is not the interest of assisting China, but of defeating the Treaty They know beforehand that a modification of the Treaty in that respect cannot be obtained, and they are insisting upon what they know is impossible; but if they ratify the Treaty and accept the Covenant of the League of Nations they do put themselves in a position to assist China They put themselves in that position for the very first tie the whole faith of international affairs, because after you have read the much-debated Article 10 of the Covenant, I advise you to read Article 11 Article 11 says that it shall be the friendly right of any , anywhere, that threatens to disturb the peace of the world or the good understanding between nations upon which the peace of the world depends That in itself constitutes a revolution in international relationshi+ps Anything that affects the peace of any part of the world is the business of every nation It does not have simply to insist that its trade shall not be interfered with; it has the right to insist that the rights of mankind shall not be interfered with Not only that, but back of this provision with regard to Shantung lies, as everybody knows or ought to know, a very honourable promise which was made by the Government of japan in my presence in Paris, namely, that just as soon as possible after the ratification of this treaty they will return to China all sovereign rights in the Province of Shantung

Great Britain has not promised to return Weihaiwei; France has not promised to return her part japan has prohts which were acquired by Ger 78 of the 99 years of the lease, and to retain only what other governht to build and operate the railway under a corporation and to exploit the hbourhood of that railway In other words, she retains only the rights of economic concessionaries Personally, I am frank to say that I think all of these nations have invaded so too far in the concessions which they have de a new story In the new story we all have the right to balk about what they have been doing and to convince them, by the pressure of the public opinion of the world, that a different course of action would be just and right I a away from the only way in which I can help her Those are the facts about Shantung

Of all the important decisions of the Peace Conference, none worried the President sosettlement, and in a speech at Des Moines, on September 6, 1919, he expressed his dissatisfaction in the folloords:

There is the settlement, which you have heard so much discussed, about that rich and ancient province of Shantung in China I do not like that settlement any better than you do, but these were the circumstances: In order to induce japan to cooperate in the war and clear the Pacific of the Gerland, and subsequently France, bound theot anything in China that Germany had and that japan would take it away froth of which promise japan proceeded to take away Kiauchow and occupy the portions of Shantung Province which had been ceded by China for a terot out of it was that in view of the fact that A to do with it, the japanese were ready to pronty which Ger Province and return it without restriction to China, and that they would retain in the province only the economic concessions such as other nations already had elsewhere in China--though you do not hear anything about that--concessions in the railway and the mines which had become attached to the railway for operative purposes But suppose that you say that is not enough Very well, then, stay out of the Treaty, and hoill that accoland and France are bound and cannot escape their obligation Are you going to institute a war against japan and France and England to get Shantung back for China? That is an operation which does not coeneration