April 25, 1919

Viscount Chinda and Baron Makino came in again today, frock-coated and very formal. Evidently the activity of the innumerable pro-Chinese press agents has fully aroused them from the almost Buddhistic calm they had maintained hitherto. Chinda talked with almost incredible rapidity. Makino was impressively silent. Fortunately they left with me a memorandum which explains the purpose of their visit. It read:

Our duty is to expose the propaganda of the Germans for the purpose of spreading unrest in the Far East and preventing the rapprochement between China and Japan so ardently desired by all the authorities in Tokyo. We denounce these dangerous canards. No Japanese Minister is exerting pressure on China.

And then it reads:

We have no desire to interfere with the Chinese plenipotentiaries. We shall not attempt to prevent China from pursuing an independent course at the Peace Conference. As a matter of fact the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs now in Paris (Mr. Liu), when he called on Baron Makino in Tokyo five months ago, promised helpful co-operation in the settlement of Far Eastern affairs and received similar assurances from Baron Makino.¹

The only substance to these malicious reports is this. Pending a settlement of the questions between the Government of North China and that of the South, we have decided to make no further advances or loans to either faction. If we did so, clearly it would be regarded as support of one or the other, while of course our wish and our duty is to remain neutral. We await the outcome of the Peace negotiations between the North and the South now in progress. We have not signed a secret treaty with either party or with any of the leaders. On February 2nd there was an exchange of notes; they provide for no cession of territory and there are no secret clauses. We are prepared to return to China the territory of Kiao-chiao, which we took from Germany at considerable expenditure of men and treasure. We are turning it back to China eighty years before the lease the Chinese gave the Germans expires, which we took over from the Germans by right of conquest. In appreciation of this step we ask the Chinese to give us commercial opportunities in Shantung equal but not superior to those which the other foreign powers now enjoy, no more, no less.

Some unofficial Chinese whisper that we propose to occupy Mongolia with the purpose of cutting China off from Europe. All these rumors are base fabrications and are circulated with the purpose of stirring up trouble and strife in the Far East. We shall in the future ignore them because we retain our faith in the integrity of the Chinese people and in the sound judgment of the statesmen assembled here in Paris. Men of this high caliber will not be misled by people who are opposed to a peaceable settlement even when they pretend to have the official support of some faction in China.

It is a thousand pities that Wellington Koo and Alfred Sze are not the leading delegates of China here. They are honorable men and they understand the world situation. On the other hand, I know Mr. Liu of old and have no confidence in his integrity. He was in 1900 one of the secretaries of Li Hung Chang in the Peking Boxer negotiations and was known to be open to bribes. As a result of previous Shantung negotiations, the Japanese have a strong hold on him which, in view of their subordinate positions, Koo and Sze may not be able to break. To me Liu seems to be as venal as was his remarkable chief, but certainly he is not endowed with the old Viceroy’s great ability.