the Washington Conference is the agreement
not to fortify islands in the Pacific, with certain specified
exceptions. This agreement, if it is adhered to, will make war between
America and Japan very difficult, unless we were allied with America.
Without a naval base somewhere near Japan, America could hardly bring
naval force to bear on the Japanese Navy. It had been the intention of
the Navy Department to fortify Guam with a view to turning it into a
first-class naval base. The fact that America has been willing to forgo
this intention must be taken as evidence of a genuine desire to preserve
the peace with Japan.

Various small concessions were made to China. There is to be a revision
of the Customs Schedule to bring it to an effective five per cent. The
foreign Post Offices are to be abolished, though the Japanese have
insisted that a certain number of Japanese should be employed in the
Chinese Post Office. They had the effrontery to pretend that they
desired this for the sake of the efficiency of the postal service,
though the Chinese post is excellent and the Japanese is notoriously one
of the worst in the world. The chief use to which the Japanese have put
their postal service in China has been the importation of morphia, as
they have not allowed the Chinese Customs authorities to examine parcels
sent through their Post Office. The development of the Japanese
importation of morphia into China, as well as the growth of the poppy
in Manchuria, where they have control, has been a very sinister feature
of their penetration of China.[84]

Of course the Open Door, equality of opportunity, the independence and
integrity of China, etc. etc., were reaffirmed at Washington; but these
are mere empty phrases devoid of meaning.

From the Chinese point of view, the chief achievement at Washington was
the Shantung Treaty. Ever since the expulsion by the Germans at the end
of 1914, the Japanese had held Kiaochow Bay, which includes the port of
Tsingtau; they had stationed troops along the whole extent of the
Shantung Railway; and by the treaty following the Twenty-one Demands,
they had preferential treatment as regards all industrial undertakings
in Shantung. The railway belonged to them by right of conquest, and
through it they acquired control of the whole province. When an excuse
was needed for increasing the garrison, they supplied arms to brigands,
and claimed that their intervention was necessary to suppress the
resultin