CHINA-JAPAN: Again, Demands

In Manhattan an astounding cable from Peking made the general manager of Associated Press grab his grey fedora and dash for Washington. He was promptly received by the Secretary of State. Together they bent over a long, incredible dispatch signed Frederick Moore. It purported to reveal that the Chinese Republic had just received a secret ultimatum from the Japanese Empire to the following effect: The President of China must accept Japanese protection of China and in return must sign over certain powers to the Emperor of Japan. These powers included control of the Chinese Army, the Chinese Navy, the Chinese Treasury, the Chinese Police and other items of sovereignty. Finally Japan demanded that the President of China must keep all this secret, but he, trapped and desperate, had let Japan's ultimatum leak to Correspondent Moore, hoping the President of the United States would do something when he read the dispatch.

Could so outrageous an ultimatum ever have been delivered? Incredulous, the Secretary of State decided to ask the Japanese Ambassador. At the Japanese Embassy delicious tea and convincing denials were served to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan and Associated Press General Manager Melville Stone by bland Japanese Ambassador Tsuneo Chinda. They came away apologetic, and President Stone cabled a thoroughgoing rebuke to Correspondent Moore—who had in fact obtained the scoop of the year, Japan's now famed Twenty-One Demands of 1915. After these demands proved authentic Secretary Bryan asked Ambassador Chinda, "Why did you lie to us?"

"Because, Your Excellency," came the purring answer, "those were my instructions."

Last week Japan, in effect, repeated her maneuver of the Twenty-One Demands, and again every Japanese official had instructions to deny everything in sight. They first denied that Japan is pressing fresh demands upon China's wasp-waisted little Dictator, Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. What actually happened last week, Japanese insisted, was that Generalissimo Chiang of his own volition invited to a secret conference at Nanking the Japanese Minister to China, suave, hearty Akira Ariyoshi and the Japanese Military Attache, exceedingly pugnacious Lieut. General Yoshimichi Suzuki.

As this secret conference began in Nanking, Shanghai was gloomier than at any time since the Twenty-One Demands. Last year Japan delivered a quiet, crushing blow to Chinese industry by forcing Generalissimo Chiang to lower tariffs on leading Japanese exports to China and up tariffs on leading imports from the U. S., Britain and Russia (TIME. Aug. 20). So slick and silent was that double-edged trade victory that it made scarcely any news in the Occident. Say glum Shanghai tycoons: "To China the new tariffs are as disastrous as the loss of three provinces." Last week they shivered to think what Minister Ariyoshi and General Suzuki might be imposing upon Generalissimo Chiang. According to Tokyo's Nichi Nichi, "General Suzuki is adopting the method of military bluntness in telling General Chiang that unless China realizes the folly of her past attitude China's relations with Japan will never improve."