The Fight for the Republic in ChinaPutnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)
History
The Fight for the Republic in China
Putnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)
China -- History -- Republic, 1912-1949; China -- Politics and government
Yuan Shih-kai belongs to that
school of politicians who are fond of employing craftiness and
cunning. He may be friendly to us for a time, but he will certainly
abandon us and again befriend the other Powers when the European war
is at an end. Judging by his past we have no doubt as to what he
will do in the future. For Japan to ignore the general sentiment of
the Chinese people and support Yuan Shih-kai with the hope that we
can settle with him the Chinese Question is a blunder indeed.
Therefore in order to secure the permanent peace of the Far East,
instead of supporting a Chinese Government which can neither be long
continued in power nor assist in the attainment of our object, we
should rather support the 400,000,000 Chinese people to renovate
their corrupt Government, to change its present form, to maintain
peace and order in the land and to usher into China a new era of
prosperity so that China and Japan may in fact as well as in name be
brought into the most intimate and vital relations with each other.
China's era of prosperity is based on the China-Japanese Alliance
and this Alliance is the foundational power for the repelling of the
foreign aggression that is to be directed against the Far East at
the conclusion of the European war. This alliance is also the
foundation-stone of the peace of the world. Japan therefore should
take this as the last warning and immediately solve this question.
Since the Imperial Japanese Government has considered it imperative
to support the Chinese people, we should induce the Chinese
revolutionists, the Imperialists and other Chinese malcontents to
create trouble all over China. The whole country will be thrown into
disorder and Yuan's Government will consequently be overthrown. We
shall then select a man from amongst the most influential and most
noted of the 400,000,000 of Chinese and help him to organize a new
form of Government and to consolidate the whole country. In the
meantime our army must assist in the restoration of peace and order
in the country, and in the protection of the lives and properties of
the people, so that they may gladly tender their allegiance to the
new Government which will then naturally confide in and rely upon
Japan. It is after the accomplishment of only these things that we
shall without difficulty gain our object by the conclusion of a
Defensive Alliance with China.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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