Page:The A B C's of the Twenty-One Demands.djvu/15

 the best harbors in China, and the railways in the province penetrate directly to the heart of China and the whole region drained by the Yellow River.

In respect to Group I. of the demands, regarding Shantung Province, the comparison with California in the paraphrase requires one to take it as if, when the Great War commenced, German capital was invested in the Southern Pacific Railway and the entire harbor works of San Francisco, and these interests were to be transferred to Japan by the terms of the proposed agreement.

In the articles relating to the Hanyehping Company, the only important steel works in China, and controlling most of the yielding iron beds, it may be stated that these works are located at Hanyang, one of the three cities (Hankow, Wuchang and Hanyang) situated at the junction of the Han and Yangtze rivers, and which together compare to Chicago in America, with this difference: Hankow is 650 miles from the mouth of the Yangtze, and is reached by ocean-going ships of considerable tonnage, is in fact a sea port in the center of China. Taking advantage of the disorders in connection with the rebellion of 1913, the Japanese Government erected permanent barracks at Hankow and still maintains there a military garrison, over the protests of China. The proposals regarding the Hankehping Company should be read by Americans as if the Bank of Japan, or the Mitsui Company, owned a controlling interest in or a blanket mortgage over the property of the Steel Corporation, and had a garrison at Pittsburg to protect their interests.

The paraphrase of articles of Group V. should be read as if Japanese in America were under "extra-territorial" provisions, and exempt from the processes of American law and courts, and could only be tried for offenses committed in America, in Japanese courts, or by Japanese consular officials. In this connection it is pertinent to remember that the Government of Japan denies to Chinese, and to Americans also, the right to own land in Japan; and limits Chinese immigration to Japan.