y bringing matters back to their
original starting-point. For this reason they were not only prepared in
theory in 1911 to lend armed assistance to the Manchus but would have
speedily done so had not England strongly dissented from such a course
of action when she was privately sounded about the matter. Even to-day,
when a temporary adjustment of Japanese policy has been successfully
arranged, it is of the highest importance for political students to
remember that the dynastic influences in Tokio have never departed from
the view that the legitimate sovereignty of China remains vested in the
Manchu House and that everything that has taken place since 1911 is
irregular and unconstitutional.

For the time being, however, two dissimilar circumstances demanded
caution: first, the enthusiasm which the Japanese democracy, fed by a
highly excited press, exhibited towards the Young China which had been
so largely grounded in the Tokio schools and which had carried out the
Revolution: secondly--and far more important--the deep, abiding and
ineradicable animosity which Japanese of all classes felt for the man
who had come out of the contest head and shoulders above everybody
else--Yuan Shih-kai. These two remarkable features ended by completely
thrusting into the background during the period 1911-1914 every other
element in Japanese statesmanship; and of the two the second must be
counted the decisive one. Dating back to Korea, when Yuan Shih-kai's
extraordinary diplomatic talents constantly allowed him to worst his
Japanese rivals and to make Chinese counsels supreme at the Korean Court
up to the very moment when the first shots of the war of 1894 were
fired, this ancient dislike, which amounted to a consuming hatred, had
become a fixed idea. Restrained by the world's opinion during the period
prior to the outbreak of the world-war as well as by the necessity of
acting financially in concert with the other Powers, it was not until
August, 1914, that the longed-for opportunity came and that Japan
prepared to act in a most remarkable way.

The campaign against Kiaochow was unpopular from the outset among the
Japanese public because it was felt that they were not legitimately
called upon to interest themselves in such a remote question as the
balance of power among European nations, which was what British warfare
against Germany seemed to them to be. Though some ill-will was felt
against Germany for the part played by her in the i