Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/86

 were peaceful and amicable. The ostensible pretext, namely, that a Shantung mob had murdered two German missionaries, might have possessed some semblance of validity had Kiao-chow been occupied as security for satisfaction in the nature of an indemnity and the punishment of the murderers. Even in that case the routine observed by civilised nations is to prefer a claim first, so as to give the other side an opportunity of satisfying it peacefully before extreme measures are resorted to. But Germany helped herself to territory at once without preferring any claim, and retained the territory in permanence irrespective of China's willingness to fulfil all ordinary obligations of reparation. This record has nothing to do with the morality of Germany's policy. The impression produced upon the Japanese is alone in question, and that impression was that the sanctions and vetoes of international law constitute no sort of protection for an Oriental State against Occidental aggression.

In the immediate sequel of Germany's absorption of Shantung, Russia annexed the Liao-tung peninsula. The procedure in each case was euphemistically termed "leasing;" but no one, least of all Russia or Germany, laboured under any manner of delusion as to the true nature of the transaction.

Thus within four years of her expulsion from territories belonging to her by right of conquest, Japan saw those territories appropriated by the