Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/130

 mand their fulfilment on our part." That at a time when the people in the vast armies were actually fighting for ideals of freedom and peace, common to humanity, the chief care of responsi- ble statesmen should have been the division of prospective spoils, did certainly not lay solid foundations for peace.

Japan in her action with respect to Shantung and in secretly making the twenty-one demands on China, was first in the attempt to utilize the great struggle for narrowly selfish gain, in this case not entirely at the expense of the enemy but of a neutral and of her allies. Nor did other gov- ernments keep themselves free from the tempta- tions of prospective conquest, with the risk of making war interminable and putting the world face to face with revolution, anarchy and famine. As early as February, 1915, the Russian Foreign Minister informed the French and British am- bassadors of the territorial acquisitions which Russia desired to make through the war, includ- ing a great part of Turkey in Europe and in Asia. The French and British Governments expressed their readiness to agree, provided a number of claims made by France and England were satis- fied. Italy entered the war, as is well known, on condition of her claims for territorial annexations