In the industrial and financial spheres, mat ters improved through the more efficient system of taxation in the provinces, returns from the salt tax, the extinguishment of loans. Con cessions for further railway building were granted to foreigners, French and British, and the British and Chinese corporation and for the exploitation of the oil wells in Chi-li and Shensi by a Chino-American company. The sufferers by the floods in Kiang-su and Anhui were provided for in arrangement with the American Red Cross organization, the idea being prevention as well as cure. During May and June 1915 a commercial delegation of 18 honorary commissioners from the Chinese cities visited the United States and was well received, while preparations on a large scale ylere made for the development, especially of The soil and agricultural resources of Manchuria with American capital.
China has always been a church nation and religion an affair of state, duly graded, pro vided for and safeguarded, the Emperor in the great temple of Heaven in Peking, worshipping with imposing sacrifices the supreme imper sonal principle, heaven; while the provincial governors paid homage to the spirits of Heaven and Earth; and the common people rendered honor to their ancestors. Apart from ritual and social ethics, Chinese religion may be defined as Universism, through which man is expected to be in obedience to and in harmony with the universe and the laws which govern it, to make recognition of its order, to observe the seasons and in all human relations to be in mutual obli gation and dependence upon each other. In a word — the word which Confucius consecrated —reciprocity is the keynote of the harmony of China's social system, which means each individual consecration to human brotherhood. The sudden change from monarchy to a re public dislocated this social system and loosened the ethical bonds holding the nation together.
In accordance with Chinese habits of thought the necessity of official sanction and encourage ment to law and order was quickly and keenly felt, though nothing had been said about re ligion in the provisional constitution. Yielding to this demand, President Yuan proposed in 1913 the establishment of the ancient Con fucian system, but this was stoutly opposed by the men of other religions, Buddhist, Mohamme dan and Christian. A certain amount of com promise seems to have been made by Yuan as representing the nation, when, solemnly en tering the great temple in Peking, he paid homage and offered sacrifice to, Heaven, and proclaimed anew the old system, in so far at least as duties to the State are concerned. At present among leaders of thought, Chinese ideas as to religion are in solution or process of transition. In judging of this, as of all measures affecting the mass of Chinese, the alien must remember that the overwhelming majority of people are governed by the force of tradition and habit, only a small fraction being interested in any reform or radical change that disturbs the daily routine of life, which for them finds its best comfort in Universism.
The outbreak of the World War in 1914 made Chinese territory again the scene of con flict. pressure from her ally, Great Britain, Japan sprang joyfully to the double task of settling several old scores with Ger many and of eliminating German occupation and influence not only from China but from the eastern hemisphere. In short, Japan proved her self an apt pupil in all the European method* so long employed in the Far East. She was quite ready to enforce, at a sacrifice of blood and treasure, her new version of the Monroe Doctrine; withal, more than willing to practise on the Chinese those arts of diplomacy backed by artne4 force, which European nations for over a century made use of on China and old Japan, With her fleet and army equipped with the latest modern resources of offense in the high air and the deep sea and on land and water, the plan was to capture Tsingtau, on which the Germans had expended $60,000,000 and to control the lines of traffic in Shantung which radiate from this seaport. Against the protest of China, the Japan ese troops under General Kamio were landed and marched inland 150 miles north of the pro fessed objective, thus violating the neutrality of China. The activities of blockade, march and siege, lasted from 11 September until 11 Novem ber, when the army under the sun banner marched into Tsingtau. The Japanese victors found a model city, with fine architecture, hospi. tals, pavements, sewers, perfect sanitation, which in 1913 had a population of 60,484 souls, 55,672 being Chinese. From 1903 to the outbreak of hostilities commerce had increased tenfold. It was now to be seen what disposition would be made of the prize of war, which, as the Japan ese government had acknowledged before the world, belonged to China. Against the spirit, method and details revealed in the unfolding of the policy of the new trespassers on her soil, China made protest, declaring that her sovereign rights had been ruthlessly violated. In prac tising political morality these fresh aggressors, despite professions loudly made from Tokio, showed no more conscience or mercy in diplo macy or actions than European powers during the previous century, or in any of Chinas numerous humiliations. Being virtually without a navy or army— all the available Chinese troops having been utilized to prevent threatened revolutionary uprisings in the south ern provinces — China had to submit to the vio lations of her sovereignty as ordered from Tokio. The custom houses and conquered area were put under the control of Japanese officers. These aggressions were followed on 18 Jan. 1915 by the presentation of 21 peremptory de mands from Tokio, the Japanese Minister, Mr.