From the Chinese point of view, the chief achievement at Washington was the Shantung Treaty.  Ever since the expulsion by the Germans at the end of 1914, the Japanese had held Kiaochow Bay, which includes the port of Tsingtau; they had stationed troops along the whole extent of the Shantung Railway; and by the treaty following the Twenty-one Demands, they had preferential treatment as regards all industrial undertakings in Shantung.  The railway belonged to them by right of conquest, and through it they acquired control of the whole province.  When an excuse was needed for increasing the garrison, they supplied arms to brigands, and claimed that their intervention was necessary to suppress the resulting disorder.  This state of affairs was legalized by the Treaty of Versailles, to which, however, America and China were not parties.  The Washington Conference, therefore, supplied an opportunity of raising the question afresh.

At first, however, it seemed as if the Japanese would have things all their own way.  The Chinese wished to raise the question before the Conference, while the Japanese wished to settle it in direct negotiation with China.  This point was important, because, ever since the Lansing-Ishii agreement, the Japanese have tried to get the Powers to recognize, in practice if not in theory, an informal Japanese Protectorate over China, as a first step towards which it was necessary to establish the principle that the Japanese should not be interfered with in their diplomatic dealings with China.  The Conference agreed to the Japanese proposal that the Shantung question should not come before the Conference, but should be dealt with in direct negotiations between the Japanese and Chinese.  The Japanese victory on this point, however, was not complete, because it was arranged that, in the event of a deadlock, Mr. Hughes and Sir Arthur Balfour should mediate.  A deadlock, of course, soon occurred, and it then appeared that the British were no longer prepared to back up the Japanese whole-heartedly, as in the old days.  The American Administration, for the sake of peace, showed some disposition to urge the Chinese to give way.  But American opinion was roused on the Shantung question, and it appeared that, unless a solution more or less satisfactory to China was reached, the Senate would probably refuse to ratify the various treaties which embodied the work of the Conference.  Therefore, at the last moment, the Americans strongly urged Japan to give way, and we took the same line, though perhaps less strongly.  The result was the conclusion of the Shantung Treaty between China and Japan.