onfidence of ultimate success,
was destined to become one of the greatest repulses that the Allies
had encountered thus far during the war.

PART II--JAPAN AND THE FAR EAST

CHAPTER VII

WHY JAPAN JOINED THE ALLIES

The battle lines of the Great War on land and sea were now beginning
to encircle the earth. While the gigantic armies on the battle grounds
of Europe were engaged in the greatest test of "the survival of the
fittest" that the world had ever witnessed, while the sharp encounters
on the seas were carrying the war around the globe, the outbreaks in
the Far East were bringing the Orient and the Occident--the two
competitive systems of civilization--into a strange alignment. The
Moslem world was dividing against itself as had the Christian world.
The followers of Buddha and the Brahmins were in direct conflict.

It is important, therefore, to consider in this chapter the
development of events in the Far East, which have been only outlined
in the preceding narratives. Of all the powers that joined the
coalition against Germany in August, 1914, none could state a clearer
cause of action than Japan. From the first outbreak of hostilities
there was never any question of whether the "England of the East"
would enter the war, and on which side she would be aligned. Japan
decided promptly and, having decided, acted with characteristic
energy.

For a _casus belli_ the Japanese statesmen had only to hold up to the
eyes of the world the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, which had been signed
on August 12, 1905. The object of this agreement was the maintenance
of the general peace in eastern Asia and India, the preservation of
the common interests of all powers in China, by insuring the
independence and integrity of the Chinese Empire and the principle of
equal opportunities for the commerce and industry of all nations in
China, the maintenance of the territorial rights of the high
contracting parties in the regions of eastern Asia and of India, and
the defense of their special interests in the said regions. If these
rights and interests were jeopardized, Japan and Great Britain agreed
to discuss fully and frankly what measures should be pursued for
defense, and to act in common in case of unprovoked attack or
aggressive action wherever arising on the part of any other power or
powers.

Thus, in those critical days of August, 1914, one of the first acts of
the British Government, when war was declared on Germ