Source 4a

Transcript

During the period of the War there has grown up throughout the world a new sense of the equality of nations and the responsibility of nations for each other’s welfare, and it was in obedience to the compulsion of this new spirit that many nations of which China was one, led by the democracies of Britain, France, Italy and the United States, joined in the struggle against the conception of international relations which found its embodiment in the governments of the Central Powers of Europe. During the period since the signature of the Armistice and during the sittings of the Peace Conference in Paris, this new spirit has become more and more dominant, and has revealed itself many times in the utterances of great public men, and it is now axiomatic that the final Peace Treaty shall be framed so as to give to the world, so far as is humanly possible, a just settlement of its cause and equitable adjustment of conflicting claims. The Chinese people who entered the war for the vindication of principles of right are no whit behind other peoples in desiring such a settlement.

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As Your Excellency is well aware, one of the matters that is engaging the attention of the Peace Conference at the moment is the disposal of the special privileges enjoyed by Germany in the Province of Shantung. There is no need to recall to Your Excellency the history of the circumstances under which those special privileges, such as were not enjoyed by any other foreign power in any other part of China were obtained. Nor is there need to recall in detail the fortunes of war which led to the temporary possession of those privileges by Japan. That possession and enjoyment, we take it, were but a trust placed in the hands of Japan by the Allied Powers.

That Japan sought to modify the fiduciary character of her occupation and enjoyment, and to enter upon what in our humble opinion was virtually a direct proprietorship, and attempted to achieve this and by compelling the Chinese Government to sign under threat of an ultimatum a treaty disposing of those special privileges is also within Your Excellency’s knowledge. …

We are, etc.,

The European and American Returned Students of China.