Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Lansing Papers, 1914–1920, Volume II

793.94/946

The Secretary of State to President Wilson

Washington, August 4, 1919 .

My Dear Mr. President: I enclose the public statement of the Japanese Government in regard to Shantung¹ which was given out in Tokio and which will probably be published here by the Associated Press tomorrow morning.

It does not seem to me satisfactory in that no time of surrendering sovereignty to China is indicated and the proposed negotiation for the surrender is to be based apparently on the . . . treaty of May, 1915,² and the supplementary agreement of September, 1918.³ There are other features of the statement which I do not like.

The issuance of this statement, however, puts us in a decidedly advantageous position. To remain silent in the face of the statement would be an admission on your part that it set forth the agreement reached at Paris. If it does not state the agreement fully or accurately, you are, in justice to yourself, bound to make public the terms on which you assented to the Shantung articles in the treaty. While there might have been ground for complaint if you had made public a statement as to Japan’s promises before the Japanese Government had made one, there can certainly be none now, because to do so would be to admit that their statement was either inaccurate or incomplete.

We hold the strategic position and, I feel, we should use it. I would suggest, therefore, that you prepare a statement of your understanding of their agreement which can be published on the heels of their statement when it appears in our newspapers with the assertion that you find it necessary to do this in order to avoid the charge of having given your assent to the treaty provisions on the basis of the statements of the Japanese Government issued at Tokio.

For your information I am enclosing a copy of a draft of a declaration to be made by the Japanese regarding the Shantung question which I submitted to Baron Makino, Mr. Balfour and finally to Mr. Clemenceau before my departure from Paris.

Faithfully yours,

[File copy not signed]

[Enclosure]

Draft of Proposals for Japanese Declaration With Regard to Shantung Province

1. Japan claims no right of sovereignty in Shantung Province.

2. Japan will restore the Lease of Kiaochow and will relinquish to China all rights, title and privileges acquired by Japan from Germany within the Leased Territory, except as regards railways, on condition that China compensate Japan for properties thus relinquished and that China agree to make of the city of Tsingtao an international settlement and of the port an open port.

3. Japan will endeavor to make this restoration complete within two years from the signing of the Peace Treaty.

4. Japan relinquishes the benefit of any provision or provisions in the conventions and agreements between Germany and China which gave an exclusive preferential position in the Province of Shantung.

5. In the administration of the existing railways which have been conceded to her, Japan will not discriminate against the trade of China or of other nations.

6. The new railway lines, for the construction of which concessions have been accorded to Japan, shall be built by the Japanese for the Chinese Government.

7. Japan will use special police only along the railways and only to ensure security for traffic. These police shall be Chinese, with such Japanese instructors as the Directors of the Railway may select, these instructors to be appointed by the Chinese Government.

8. Japan will withdraw all military forces from Shantung as soon as practicable, it being the intention, if conditions permit, that the withdrawal shall be completed within a period of not more than two years.

1. Foreign Relations, 1919, vol. i, p. 718.
2. Ibid., 1915, p. 197.
3. For substance of this agreement, see undated note from the Japanese Embassy, ibid., 1918, p. 205.