t coast of Asia, a right to this territory, under international
law, could have been obtained by conquest. But Germany possessed no
such territory. What then was left for Japan to acquire by conquest?
Apparently nothing but a lease extorted under compulsion from China
by Germany. I understand that international lawyers hold that such a
lease, or the rights acquired, justly or unjustly, under it, cannot
be acquired by conquest.

"_Third._ Suppose Germany says to us, 'We will cede our lease and all
rights under it, but we will cede them back to China.' Will we
recognize the justice of Japan's claims to such an extent that we
will threaten Germany with further war unless she cedes these rights
to Japan rather than to China?

"Again, suppose that Germany, in her hopelessness of resistance to
our demands, should sign without question a clause ceding these
rights to Japan, even though we know that this is so wrong that we
would not fight in order to compel Germany to do it, what moral
justification would we have in making Germany do this?

"_Fourth._ Stripped of all words that befog the issue, would we not,
under the guise of making a treaty with Germany, really be making a
treaty with Japan by which we compel one of our Allies (China) to
cede against her will these things to Japan? Would not this action be
really more unjustifiable than the one which you have refused to be a
party to on the Dalmatian Coast? Because, in the latter case, the
territory in dispute did not belong to one of the Allies, but to one
of the Central Powers; the question in Dalmatia is as to which of two
friendly powers we shall give territory taken from an enemy power; in
China the question is, shall we take certain claimed rights from one
friendly power in order to give them to another friendly power.

"It would seem to be advisable to call particular attention to what
the Japanese mean when they say that they will return Kiao-chow to
China. They _do not_ offer to return the railway, the mines or the
port, i.e., Tsingtau. The leased territory included a portion of land
on the north-east side of the entrance of the Bay and another on the
south-west and some islands. It is a small territory. The 50
Kilometer Zone was not included. That was a _limitation_ put upon the
movement of German troops. They could not go beyond the boundary of
the zone.