Socialist leader, Peter J. Troelstra, who openly declared in parliament that the time had come for the workers to assume control of the government. Another deputy, David Wynkoop, went still further and demanded the immediate abdication of the Queen.-Relations between Belgium and Holland were strained when the former demanded that Limburg, Zeeland and a part of Staats Vlaanderen be surrendered to it. This demand was finally presented to the Peace Conference and was refused. On December 11 Gustave Ador was elected President of Switzerland. In January economic conditions were reported to be worse than during the war.

XII. ASIA AND AFRICA

CHINA. Even a declaration of war against the Central Powers did not bring to an end the civil strife which had been raging within the Republic of China. The restored Manchu Empire had scarcely been overturned and republican government reëstablished in July, 1917 (see RECORD, 1917, p. 77), before the first squadron of the Chinese fleet mutinied and joined with the seceded southern provinces of Kangtung, Kangsi, Kweichow, Hunan, and Szechuen, which had set up a rival government at Canton under the headship of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. From this time on China suffered from the evil effects of civil war. The armies of the Canton government at first achieved notable successes but after March, 1918, the tide of battle fluctuated. Sun YatSen compelled the provincial governors to obey his orders. He took control of the judiciary and prison departments, the Kwongsam railway and the surplus revenues of the salt gabelle; he also called an "Extraordinary Parliament" and formed a cabinet. At last, however, worn out by wrangles with his cabinet and military leaders he resigned in May, 1918, advising in his letter of resignation that the war against the northern forces be continued. Meanwhile the military governors of the neutral provinces, strongly supported by the business interests of the country, both north and south, were constantly urging peace. Such was the state of affairs when parliamentary elections were held in July, 1918, throughout the Republic, except in the rebellious provinces. The new parliament, in which the military party had an overwhelming majority, was formally opened on August II and in September Hsu Chi-Chang, a former Vice-President, was elected President. Inaugurated on October 15, he at once decreed a cessation of hostilities between the northern and southern provinces and urged that the energies of the Republic be devoted to industrial progress and social reform. This appeal was followed on December 2 by a memorandum from ministers of the allied governments to President Hsu Chi-Chang, urging immediate reconciliation of the warring factions. A similar document was simultaneously presented to the officials of the Canton government, with a statement

that this action did not imply recognition of the independence of the southern government. A conference attended by representatives of both northern and southern China was accordingly arranged but after months of deliberation it was announced on May 16 that all efforts to effect a compromise had failed and that the conference was at an end.-Strained diplomatic relations with Japan developed soon after the opening of the Peace Conference. This grew largely out of two issues, viz., the disposition of Chinese territory, especially the Shantung peninsula, and the determination of the Chinese delegation at Paris to publish certain "secret treaties" between the two countries. The Chinese peace delegation, composed of Lu Chieng-tsang, High Commissioner; Chen Ting Thomas Wing, ex-Minister of Agriculture; Hu Weh-teh, Minister at Paris; Alfred Sze, Minister to London; and Dr. Wellington Koo, Minister to Washington, asserted that Japan was endeavoring to dominate China. In proof of this statement they emphatically declared that Japan had vainly attempted to obtain the right to represent China at the Peace Conference, that, for this purpose, the Japanese Foreign Minister, in November, had requested that Japanese advisers be allowed to help formulate the Chinese proposals to be submitted at Paris and that the Chinese delegates had been warned not to disclose certain secret treaties, these treaties having been stolen from their baggage in their passage through Japan, on the way to Paris. All these charges were denied by the Japanese Government, but the treaties in question, with other Chinese-Japanese agreements, were subsequently published (see supra, p. 69). The provisions of the Paris Conference relative to Shantung were directly responsible for the refusal of the Chinese plenipotentiaries to sign the treaty. They have aroused violent opposition in China and have been widely condemned elsewhere. A wave of antiJapanese agitation is sweeping over the Republic, and industrial centers are boycotting Japanese goods. Meanwhile Japan is apparently making arrangements for her withdrawal from Chinese territory (see supra, p. 67).

JAPAN. Early in August various parts of Japan were seriously disturbed by riots due to the high price of rice. These riots were accompanied by demonstrations against profiteering and luxury and assumed a socialistic character. The war brought unprecedented prosperity to Japan, but the poorer classes suffered greatly because of the high cost of living. During the riots many excesses were committed. At Nagoya 30,000 people besieged the governor's palace, demanding food. At Tokyo 5,000 people raided the business section and destroyed 200 stores and restaurants. It became necessary to close stores and theaters. Mobs attacked the police and the homes of the wealthy were the object of especial hatred. The government voted an appropriation to purchase rice to be resold at a mod

erate price and a number of the wealthy made large donations to purchase food for the poor. These disturbances were followed by strikes. On September 29 the Government of Count Terauchi, formed in October, 1916, fell from power and Mr. Kei Hara, the leader of the Seiyukai, or Constitutional party, was named as his successor. The new Cabinet was constituted as follows: Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, Mr. Kei Hara; Foreign Affairs, Viscount Uchida; Home Affairs, Mr. T. Tokonami; Finance, Baron Takahashi; Education, Mr. T. Nakahashi; Agriculture and Commerce, Mr. Yamamoto; Communications, Mr. U. Noda; War, Lieutenant Fanaka; and Navy, Admiral Kato. This Ministry was the first to be presided over by a commoner and represents thoroughgoing party government. It met with great popular approval.-On December 18, the Minister of Interior announced that the government would bring in a bill for the extension of suffrage and a fuller measure of constitutional government. Since that time there has been considerable agitation for a more democratic suffrage, not only by students but by many politicians and members of the imperial diet. Mass meetings have been handled with great leniency by the government, the authorities being anxious not to seem oppressive. At present, out of a population of about 60,000,000, only 1,600,000 men can vote. The attitude of the government toward labor unions has been tolerant.-Early in August it was announced that the United States, Japan, Great Britain and France would coöperate in sending an expeditionary force to lend aid and support to the Czechoslovak army in Siberia and Russia (see supra, p. 120). — On February 28 a press dispatch from Peking stated that the Independence Committee representing Koreans in China had presented the American Minister with a petition urging that the United States intercede with the Peace Conference in behalf of Korean independence. Throughout the following months there has been great unrest in Korea, but all demonstrations in favor of independence have been severely repressed. In March a series of uprisings occurred; mob violence reigned in cities; means of communication were cut; and public officials were murdered. Japan at once increased her garrisons but by the middle of April the riots had developed into a formidable rebellion. A cablegram from Shanghai to the Korean National Association in San Francisco, filed March 31, stated that the Japanese were massacring people throughout the peninsula. Japanese official explanations stated that the mobs had increased their activities because of the lenient attitude of the government until open rebellion existed, and intimated that foreign propagandists, some of them missionaries, were largely to blame for these conditions. On May 15 the Japanese privy council met at Tokyo under the presidency of the Emperor and decided upon a revision of the Korean government. This revision called for civil instead of military government and also

for a larger measure of local self-government when the Koreans should have abandoned their movement for independence. Early in March the Korean Independence party organized a provisional revolutionary government with headquarters in Manchuria and declared the independence of Korea. On April 27 a constitution of the Korean Republic was proclaimed by the provisional cabinet. It provided for a republican form of government, equality of citizens, religious liberty, freedom of speech and of the press, universal suffrage, compulsory education and military service and requested membership in the League of Nations. In reply to a protest against Japanese atrocities in Korea sent by certain churches in America, Premier Hara stated on July 10 that his government was investigating the alleged abuses and had been for some time perfecting plans for reforming the administration of Korea.-Japan's representatives at the Peace Conference were Marquis Saionzi, Baron Makino, Viscount Chinda, Mr. Matsui and Mr. Ijuin.

TURKEY IN ASIA.—In January the terms of a secret treaty concluded early in the war between France and Great Britain concerning the future of Asia Minor were made public. France was to assume direction of the destinies of Syria, Lebanon and Armenia Minor (that part of Armenia west of the Euphrates); Palestine was to be under international protection; while Mesopotamia and portions of the Arabian peninsula were to be under the supervision of Great Britain. The future of Armenia rests largely in the hands of the Peace Conference. The restoration of a Jewish state in Palestine has been widely discussed. OTHER ASIATIC AND AFRICAN STATES. - In a memorandum addressed to the Peace Conference on May 18 the Persian parliament indicated the desire of Persia to be completely autonomous. It declared that the Anglo-Russian agreements of 1907 and 1916 had worked great harm and requested that they, together with all other illegal, reactionary treaties and obligations, be cancelled. Incidentally Persia asked for a loan of $100,000,000 from the League of Nations with which to pay its debts and reorganize the state. On February 20 Habibullah Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan, was assassinated. His third son, Amanullah Khan has assumed the throne. The late Amir was friendly to Great Britain, but since his death attacks on the British by the Afghans have occurred on the northwestern frontier of India.-In January the revolt of 10,000 Tafilet tribesmen in Morocco was quickly suppressed. General Berengner was appointed resident-general in the Spanish zone of Morocco.

E. D. GRAPER

H. J. CARMAN