bout the alleged German rights. My principal interest in
the matter is with sole reference to the question of the moral right
or wrong involved. From this point of view I discussed the matter
this morning with Mr. Lansing and Mr. White. They concurred with me
and requested me to draft a hasty note to you on the subject.

"Since your conference with us last Saturday, I have asked myself
three or four Socratic questions the answers to which make me,
personally, quite sure on which side the moral right lies.

"_First._ Japan bases certain of her claims on the right acquired by
conquest. I asked myself the following questions: Suppose Japan had
not succeeded in her efforts to force the capitulation of the Germans
at Tsing-Tsau; suppose that the armistice of November 11th had found
her still fighting the Germans at that place, just as the armistice
found the English still fighting the Germans in South-East Africa. We
would then oblige Germany to dispose of her claims in China by a
clause in the Treaty of Peace. Would it occur to any one that, as a
matter of right, we should force Germany to cede her claims to Japan
rather than to China? It seems to me that it would occur to every
American that we would then have the opportunity that we have long
desired to force Germany to correct, in favor of China, the great
wrong which she began to do to the latter in 1898. What moral right
has Japan acquired by her conquest of Shantung assisted by the
British? If Great Britain and Japan secured no moral right to
sovereignty over various savages inhabiting islands in the Pacific
Ocean, but, on the other hand, we held that these peoples shall be
governed by mandates under the League of Nations, what moral right
has Japan acquired to the suzerainty (which she would undoubtedly
eventually have) over 30,000,000 Chinese in the sacred province
of Shantung?

"_Second._ Japan must base her claims either on the Convention with
China or on the right of conquest, or on both. Let us consider her
moral right under either of these points.

"_a)_ If the United States has not before this recognized the
validity of the rights claimed by Japan under her Convention with
China, what has happened since the Armistice that would justify us in
recognizing their validity now?

"_b)_ If Germany had possessed territory, in full sovereignty, on the
eas