Page:America Fallen!.djvu/19

Rh. Japan was permitted to hold Kiao-Chou and acquire from China the lease formerly held by Germany, a pledge being given for the maintenance of the "Open Door" in that country.

So far, so good; but when it came to the insistence by the Allies on an indemnity of fifteen billion dollars, the first installments of which were to be paid into the Belgian treasury, Germany presented an adamantine front. And to the demands of Great Britain that the German fleet be reduced by the distribution of its major units among the fleets of the Allies, she retorted that if the transfer of so much as a ship's launch to a foreign flag were again suggested, Germany would withdraw at once from the convention, and "would fight it out until the last mark, the last loaf of bread, and the last man was gone!"

The convention was adjourned for a