The Demand for The fourth crisis was the Italian dispute. Italy entered the war to obtain Italia Irredexta, unredeemed Italy, that is, lands inhabited by Italians but held by Austria. When she threw in her sword in May 1915, she had taken the precaution to obtain the approval of her claims in the agree ment known as the Pact of London. In this document she did not claim Fiume but agreed that it should go to Croatia, which in 1919 was a part of Jugoslavia. The city was the port of commerce for Jugoslavia and Hungary and had long been so considered; and that was the reason it was left to Croatia in 1915. Soon after the armistice was signed 11 Nov: 1918, a movernent arose in Italy for obtaining Fiume for Italy. Before the war. according to statis tics then accepted the Italian residents were a plurality but not a majority of its population. But agitators in Italy made it appear to the people that one of the jewels of the Italian crown was about to be handed over to foreigners, and the excitable people became aroused on the question. Probably Orlando, the prime min ister, would have resisted the demand if he had felt able to defy popular opinion; but he had many enemies in politics and was in no posi tion to act independently. He arrived in Paris pledged to demand Fiume and let it be known at once. Now neither Great Britain nor France looked favorably on Italy's pretension to be come a great colonial power. They were not vrilling to take the lead in opposing her, but they encouraged President Wilson to take such a position. The Italians were willing to do anything requested of them if they could have Fiume. Since they could get no intimation that they were to get the city they sought to block progress, threatening to go home, ordering their trains, and forever repeating their arguments. At last President Wilson prepared a statement of the case against their claim, read it over to Lloyd George and Clemenceau, who did not object to it, and finally gave it to the news papers. So much had been said about the secrecy of the negotiation and the wholesome effects of publicity that President Wilson may have thought that a frank avowal of the matter would clear it up. His statement was gener ally approved outside of Italy. In that country passion rose to white heat. Orlando left Paris and was received with enthusiasm in Rome. The Italians seem to have thought that their departure would break up the conference. When they saw that the treaty with Germany was about to be presented without them, they suddenly announced their return. When signs appeared that the Italian wave of passion was beginning to recede the poet, d'Annunzio with a band of followers appeared in Fiume, selected his grave, and announced that he would die in the city before it should pass into tite hands of the Jugoslays. President Wilson was supported by Great Britain and France. He let it be known that he would agree that Fiume might be left under international control, but Italy would have nothing but an Italian Fiume.
The Japanese Demands.--,The fifth crisis occurred over the demands of the Japanese in Shantung. The position of Japan in Asia is different from Italy's in Europe. Over against her lie the rich lands of Russia, China, with colonial possessions of Great Britain and France. Little wasted by the war she is in a position to do great damage in Asia for the time being. if she feels that it is worth while to incur the hostility of her former friends. Wheat, therefore, she asked Great Britain in February 1917, to agree that she should succeed to Germany's rights at Kiao-chatt and in Shan.
tung Peninsula she obtained a ready assent, and she was able to get France, Italy and Russia to make the same promise. In February 1917, Japan must have believed that the United States would enter the war. She doubtless believed, also, that they wonld take the side of China, who asked for the restoration of Shantung. By prudently getting the previous assent to her scheme of three great powers, she tied the hands of the United States in the peace con gress. When it is asked why President Wilson did not treat Japan as he treated Italy it is sufficient to point ont that he had Great Britain and France behind him on the Fiume incident, and that they, with Italy, were pledged against him on the Shantung incident. He got, how ever, a promise from Japan that she would eventually hand over Shantung to China in sovereignty, but she would not make the prom ise in writing. saying that her word VfaS given and that to demand a written statement was to doubt her honor. It was not possible to assert that she was deceiving her associates; but it was nnusual for a power that took written as surances from others as a basis of all treaties to refuse to give the same when site was binding herself.
The situation was serious for President Wil son. Without the support of the other powers, with the Italian delegates in Rome in threat ened permanent retirement, it seemed to him necessary to make a compromise. Thus it was agreed in the treaty (sections 156, 157 and 158) that Japan should have all the rights that Ger many had possessed at Kiao-chau and in tire Shantung province. Germany, it should be re membered, held Kiao-chau under a 99 years lease, and Japan could not expect to hold it longer, nor more absolutely. At the same time Japan made an oral supplementary agreement, on the surface voluntary, ato hand back the Shantung Peninsula in full sovereignty to China, retaining only the economic privileges granted to Gennany and the right to establish a settle ment under the usual conditions at Tsingtao.° China protested against this settlement and eventually refused to sign the treaty. To have done otherwise would have been to accept the signing away of rights she was compelled to defend as long as she could.
No other part of the peace treaty was so much criticized in the United States as the Shantung settlement. The opposition arose from a deep-seated suspicion of Japan's integ rity in diplomacy; and it was freely predicted that if Japan did hand back Shantung to China she would find a way to retain vital control under the guise of economic privileges. But the economic privileges she has talked about whenever the subject has been discussed are such as other nations have obtained in China, and elsewhere, in establishing spheres of com mercial influence. A feature of the problem not generally taken into account is the supine ness of China. No nation of 400,000,000 per sons has a right to be as weak as she and ex pect the rest of the world to defend her against the greed of a neighbor. It is hers to defend herself, and it may happen that the Shantung matter will serve to awaken the Chinese to the necessity of protecting their nation. If Japan's policy results in the rise of nationality in China, the situation will take care of itself. If Japan breaks her promises and China challenges her it will be for the other powers, or the League of Nations, to say that she shall not wage war to make good her broken faith.