Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/90

 he had been thrown by the international catastrophe, declared a war-zone in Shantung province so as to restrict the Japanese military effort, and then cancelled that zone as soon as Tsingtao had been captured, Japanese irritation reached such a point that they were forced to action.

On the 18th January, 1915, they accordingly served their famous Twenty-one Demands on him; and although a violent press defensive did something to mitigate the terms, (Group V, which was the outline of a Japanese protectorate being withdrawn,) by means of an ultimatum they forced through all the Manchurian and Shantung articles, with many other valuable closed-door privileges which will be later the cause of international oonflict.

Yet even this left Japan dissatisfied: she was still fearful that China would enter the war and thereby regain a certain liberty of action. The direct efforts the Tokio Government made at the end of the year 1915 to prevent such a consummation were followed in 1916 by direct efforts abroad to improve Japan's international standing. It was naturally at Petrograd that Japanese diplomacy first set to work; and as the Bolshevist publication of the Secret Treaties has shown, the Japanese succeeded so