The Chinese were helpless in the pres ence of physical force, but they had a potent weapon in the buying power of over 300,000,000 people, and this they proceeded to utilize at once. A boycott was instituted against Japanese goods which resulted in the loss of many mil lions of dollars by Japanese traders and in many cases led to their bankruptcy. In certain districts goods were burned and widespread disorders occurred. Japan protested, and the instigators of the out breaks were punished.
China in the World War.—The part taken by China in the World War was a peculiar one, and was largely influenced by her relations with Japan, which had never been cordial since the close of the Chinese-Japanese War. As early as 1914, China had expressed a desire to join in the Anglo-Japanese operations against Tsing-Tao, but an intimation was con veyed to her that her participation might cause complications with other powers. China had especial reason to be incensed against Germany, whose troops had dis played great brutality during the Boxer troubles and who by force majeure had extorted valuable possessions and con cessions from her in Shantung province. Again in November, 1915, she sought to range herself upon the side of the Allies, but again she was held in check by the objections of Japan. The motives that actuated the latter nation have been variously explained. By some it was thought that Japan looked with appre hension upon the development of China as a military power which might have resulted from the raising, training, and equipment of armies. Then too the con jecture has been hazarded that if the war resulted victoriously for the Allies, China might advance claims in the Peace Conference that might threaten the Japanese hegemony in Asia. That this latter motive was a prominent one is on the question until the war was within a few days of ending in Nov. 1919.
China's active military participation in the conflict was practically nil. She offered to send an army of 100,000 men to the western front, but the offer was declined because of the lack of tonnage. She did, however, contribute the services of 130,000 coolies, who worked behind shown by the correspondence between the Russian Ambassador and his government, relating conversations the former had had with Viscount Motono, the Japanese Foreign Minister, in which the Japanese statesman had emphasized the necessity of safeguarding Japan's interests at the Peace Conference. Despite this opposi
tion of her powerful neighbor, however, China formally declared war against Germany, Aug. 14, 1917. The govern ment, in taking this step dispensed with the sanction of Parliament, which was not then in session. The Chamber of Deputies endorsed the action nearly three months later, but the Senate did not vote the lines in France and Belgium, and thereby released a corresponding number of Caucasians for actual fighting. She was a valuable industrial ally also along the same lines in Mesopotamia and in German East Africa. Many of the British ships were manned by Chinese sailors. Despite this contribution, how ever, the services rendered by China were thought by the Allies to fall far short of what should have been afforded, and a complaint to that effect was made, on Nov. 4, 1918, when the British Minister at Peking, with the concurrence of the other Allied representatives, handed to the Chinese Government a memorandum in which it was indicated where the latter had been remiss in fulfilling its obliga tions. It was claimed that the Boxer indemnities which had been remitted by the Allies in order to foster war indus tries had been wasted in party squabbles; that enemy property had not been con fiscated nor enemy enterprises thwarted as they should have been; in short, that in many respects China had been lukewarm and supine. This was denied, but not convincingly. The result was that when the Chinese delegates appeared at the Peace Conference to claim their share of the fruits of victory, the burden of proof lay with them to show that they were entitled to them.
In the early stages of the proceedings at Paris, a contention arose between China and Japan on the subject of Shantung, second only in importance to the rival claims of Italy and Jugoslavia to Fiume. Shantung was of great value to the Chinese, not only from commercial but sentimental considerations. It was to China what Mecca was to the Moham medans and Jerusalem to the Jews, their Holy Land, the birthplace of their civili zation, hallowed by memories of their great sages, Mencius and Confucius. The Chinese claimed that it belonged to them by right of nationality, that it was Chinese to the core, that it had been torn from them by force and should be re turned to them as a matter of right.