Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/71

 all the world over by the rise of popular power, that the Chinese were not fit for self-government, whatever they may mean; and so when President Li Yuan-hung assumed office in the summer of 1916 the Powers had nothing left in the way of a reconstructive plan excepting to induce China to enter the war, hoping that this act would tide things over, and serve to mask five years' discreditable diplomacy. On 14th August, 1917, China did declare war on the Teutonic Powers—being speeded to take that decision by Viscount Ishii's special mission to the United States, which it was feared had sinister objects. But the Chinese declaration was stripped of half its international significance because the country was once more at war with itself—North facing South, and each side declaring that the other was a rebel and seeking by force of arms to subdue it. And as this kind of provincial militarism has become just as much the enemy in China as Kaiserism has been in Europe, it is well carefully to consider it.

The modern army of China is the child of the collapse of 1900. It is true that prior to the Boxer explosion a few 'model' divisions had already been organized as a result of the disastrous Japanese war of 1894-95. There