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and of adapting the old ideas to the new has been realized by those responsible for the destinies of the country-how wisely, how courageously, and how disinterestedly they have acted in seeking solutions of the problem-how well and how loyally they have been served by the various foreign interests to which they have from time to time turned for assistance and cooperation,—those are speculations in regard to which some indications may be found in the data here gathered together, but for which no categorical answers are possible. There have been times of progress and of reaction; there has been confusion of purposes; there has been blind Utopianism, and bitter disillusionment: but the process of association of foreign with Chinese interests has gone on almost without interruption or pause, China repeatedly seeking foreign assistance in the solution of its problems of industrial, economic and administrative development, and giving in return rights that carried with them in many, instances at least an implication of political interest.

This process has been marked by certain critical events which have in turn initiated new phases of development:-first, the rapprochement with Russia, immediately prompted by the apprehensions arising out of China's defeat at the hands of Japan; then the Battle of Concessions, in 1898, originating with Germany's exaction of the lease of the Kiaochow Territory; thereupon, the abortive reaction that found expression in the Boxer movement of 1900, irresolutely abetted and restrained by the Manchu Court; the succeeding period of reconstruction, when China sought to restore and stabilize normal relations with the Powers, and those Powers endeavored to establish among themselves an equilibrium based upon the mutual recognition of existing interests and upon the adoption of the principles of preservation of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and maintenance of equality of commercial opportunity for all nationalities in China; then the defeat of Russia by Japan, in 1904-5, with the consequent transfer to the victor of a great share of both the material advantages and the political influence theretofore enjoyed by Russia; in 1911, the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty, which brought with it an intensified preoccupation with questions of internal development, and which was the beginning of the period of unrest and civil dissension which continues to the present time; then the outbreak of the European War, in 1914, affecting China economically through the dislocation of foreign trade and the drying up of the European money markets to which it had hitherto looked for financial accommodation at need, and perhaps more profoundly affecting it politically through Japan's entering the war and taking military occupation of the Kiaochow Leased Territory and other German concessions in Shantung Province, and through the Treaties of May 25th, 1915; and lastly, the entry of China itself into the war, in August, 1917.

Throughout these phases of development, financial, economic and industrial concessions have been made the objects of international policies; such advantages have been sought by Governments, both directly, in the form of general conventional stipulations, and indirectly, in the form of special grants to particular banks or industrial organizations,-through all the means available to one State in its intercourse with another; the holders of such concessions have often spoken with the voice of their Governments in insisting upon their own

construction of the rights granted to them; and such commitments to individuals of one nationality, even when left unutilized and allowed to lapse by the terms of the concession, have now and again been claimed as a basis of protest against a grant to the nationals of any other country. The result of this merging of individual with governmental interests has been that matters which would elsewhere be of merely commercial character, susceptible of judicial determination in case of dispute, are in China matters of international political concern, for the settlement of which the ultimate recourse is to diplomatic action. It is thus in a sense true that the international status of the Chinese Government is determined and conditioned by its business contracts with individual foreign firms or syndicates, scarcely if at all less than by its formal Treaties with other Governments. It is at any rate seldom that any international situation relating to China can be fully understood without reference to the intricate fabric of quasi-public as well as of public obligations which qualify the freedom of action of the Chinese Government.

The object of the present collection is to reproduce as fully and as faithfully as possible the available documents embodying that complex of interrelated rights and obligations. In compiling it, the Editor has drawn upon all sources at his disposal, and save for a few instances in which he has been debarred by obligations of official or of personal confidence, has included in it every available document that seemed to him to fall within the scope of the collection. He has considered it to be beyond his competence, as a compiler, to assume any judgment of the effect or of the validity of the various agreements, but for the sake of completeness has included in the collection documents which would appear to be void or voidable, or which have expired by their own limitations, or have been cancelled by other agreements, if they appeared to be of sufficient interest— whether of actual or potential practical interest, or merely historical interest-to warrant their reproduction.

Although an officer of the American Government, the Editor is, in respect to this compilation, acting wholly upon his personal responsibility, having obtained the permission of the Department of State to edit it independently, under a publication contract with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has exercised his own discretion in the selection of the documents to be included, and in all editorial questions such as the choice of texts to be adopted, the translations, and the explanatory notes that he has affixed to the various documents. It is therefore to be understood that there is neither actual nor implied responsibility, on the part of any branch of the Government of the United States, for either the substance or the editorial treatment of the present collection.

In the compilation of so great a bulk of material, gathered from many different sources, the Editor has incurred many obligations which he gratefully acknowledges. He is perhaps most deeply indebted to Mr. E. T. Williams, formerly Secretary of the American Legation in Peking, more recently Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs of the Department of State, and now attached to the American Delegation to the Peace Conference, for constant assistance in obtaining texts and translations, and still more for his encourage

ment and for his helpfulness in the various arrangements incidental to the publication of the book. He likewise owes much to the assistance and cooperation of his recent Chief, the Honorable Paul S. Reinsch, American Minister to China. It would be impossible to acknowledge in detail his obligations to those who have in one way or another assisted him to obtain texts for publication; but he takes pleasure in recording a particular debt of gratitude to Dr. G. E. Morrison, who spared no pains in making available to him the wealth of rare materials gathered in his library of the Far East. He is also much indebted to the assistance of Dr. C. C. Wang, chief compiler of the admirable collection of Railway Loan Agreements of China, who placed at his disposal not only the material published in that volume but also that which is being prepared for eventual publication in a separate volume dealing with Railway Agreements other than those involving loans; to Mr. W. H. Donald, Editor of the Far Eastern Review, who has given him access to a number of documents gathered for the editorial use of that magazine; to Mr. Igor Mitrophanow, Second Secretary of the Russian Legation in Peking, who very generously made for him a search of the Russian official and semi-official publications dealing with questions concerning China; and to Mr. Alexis Leger, of the French Legation in Peking, who was most helpful in looking up certain documents involving French interests, and obtaining the necessary permission for their publication.

In the matter of translations, he is under special obligations to Mr. Raymond P. Tenney, Assistant Chinese Secretary of the American Legation in Peking, for a great number of careful translations from Chinese; to Mr. Roger S. Greene, of the Rockefeller Medical Foundation, formerly American Consul at Harbin and Consul-General at Hankow, to Mr. G. A. Candlin, of the Russo-Asiatic Bank in Peking, and to Mr. Wilfred Stevens, of the Department of State, for a considerable number of translations from Russian; to Mr. Roger A. Burr, of the American Legation in Peking, for several translations from German; and to Mr. J. W. Ballantine, Japanese Secretary of the American Embassy in Tokyo, and to Mr. A. A. Williamson, American Consul at Dairen, for various translations from Japanese. He is also glad to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. W. J. Cannon, formerly of the American Legation at Peking, and to Mr. S. S. Young, of the Siems-Carey Company, who were of very great help to him in gathering and preparing the material for publication.

In conclusion, the Editor wishes to acknowledge to the Carnegie Endowment, and especially to its Secretary, Dr. Scott, his cordial sense of personal obligation for its generous readiness to cooperate in the furtherance of his plans. He is particularly grateful to the Endowment for undertaking to relieve him of the labor and responsibility of preparing an adequate index.

Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, there will be added to this compilation a selection of such articles as appear to be of particular interest in relation to the affairs of China.

AMERICAN EMBASSY, TOKYO, JAPAN,

April, 1919.

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JAPAN & KOREA-Treaty of Alliance..
GREAT BRITAIN & CHINA-Convention re-
specting Junction of Chinese and Burmese
Telegraph Lines. (Not printed.)

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Principal documents are indicated by their year, with subjoined serial number: docu-
ments which are printed as annexes or in notes to others are designated by the number
-between parentheses-of the principal document to which they are attached.

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