Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/162

 which placed the control and direction of the foreign relations in her hands; another on 31st July, 1907, by which all administrative measures and all high official appointments were made subject to the approval of a Japanese Resident-General; still another on 12th July, 1909, whereby the administration of justice and prisons—the essential police-power—was given her; and a final one on 23d August, 1910, when Korea was publicly annexed to the Japanese Empire and the Emperor of Korea deprived of his rightful title. Consequently, by filing the Twenty-one Demands almost immediately after Tsingtao had been captured, when every indication from the European war-theatre pointed to a drawn war, and forcing through, by means of an ultimatum, all those clauses which did not directly conflict with the treaty rights of other Powers, Japan imagined she was safe, and would be able to do from her Shantung base—Kiaochow—all she had done in Manchuria acting from the Port Arthur territory.

The nature of the things Japan thinks she has won by means of this manœuvre can easily be described; and it should be carefully noted that in these matters, as in all other essential political business, the German standard has been the one scrupulously followed. Japan has