potentially still greater if reference be had to the future. Added to these interests, material in character, are two other factors psychological or ethical in character. So far as China is concerned, the Western Powers have undoubtedly been influenced, though not controlled, by an unwillingness to see that country unjustly and oppressively treated. So far as Japan is concerned, the Western Powers, especially since 1914, have viewed with disfavor the paramount influence exerted by the Japanese militarists, the continued maintenance of monarchical bureaucratic government, and the adoption by the Japanese Government of policies which, in political and ethical character, it has been difficult to distinguish from those of monarchical Prussia. It is not surprising that the Japanese people should have objected to being termed the Prussians of the East, but that they have been so viewed, and that by the actions of their Government justification has been given for this characterization, there can be little doubt.

Reduced then, to its simplest and baldest terms, the chief political problem which the Conference was called to solve was to find means of placing a restraint upon the imperialistic ambitions of Japan. In addition it was hoped that policies could be framed and declarations made that would be acceptable to all the Powers having treaty relations with China whereby harmonious and mutually beneficial political and economic relations with China could be established and maintained.

CHAPTER III

THE ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURE OF THE

Plenary Sessions.

CONFERENCE

For final authoritative action, the Conference met in what were termed Plenary Sessions of which seven in all were held. The limitations of space of the room in which the sessions were held made it necessary that only persons obtaining tickets of admission could be permitted to attend. The sessions were, however, public in the fullest sense of the word. That is, newspaper reporters were present and no restrictions were placed upon what they might publish regarding the proceedings. In fact, however, the work of these sessions, aside from a number of formal addresses, as, for example, by the President of the United States, by Secretary of State Hughes, by Mr. Arthur Balfour, by M. Briand and others, and formal announcements, was almost wholly limited to the approval, without debate, and only occasionally with comments and explanatory statements, of the decisions which had been previously arrived at in Committees of the Whole.

Committees of the Whole and Sub-Committees. These Committees of the Whole were two in number, the one devoted to the consideration of matters of

armament, and the other to Pacific and Far Eastern Questions. The Delegates of Powers, including China, which had not been invited to participate in the discussion of armaments of course did not attend the meetings of the Committee of the Whole which dealt with that subject.

These Committees of the Whole, it may be further observed, found it expedient, in a number of cases, to create sub-committees or drafting committees for the preliminary and detailed discussion of special topics. Thus it happened that some of the resolutions or agreements finally adopted by the Conference in Plenary Session had been first discussed in sub-committees of the Committee of the Whole, referred to drafting committees, perhaps again referred to a sub-committee then reported to and adopted by the Committee of the Whole, and, by that Committee, reported to the Conference in Plenary Session.1

Procedure. The meetings of the Committees of the Whole were not open to the public, nor were verbatim reports of all their proceedings published. However, in accordance with the general policy adopted by the Conference of giving as much publicity to its work as was possible, press "Communiques were issued after each session of the

'Among such sub-committees were the following: On Post Offices, on Chinese Revenues (Tariff), on Extraterritoriality, and the Drafting Committee, which, in addition to its drafting functions, considered the matters of foreign troops and wireless installations in China. At the first plenary session there were also appointed two committees on Programme and Procedure to report respectively upon the programme and procedure to be followed by the two Committees of the Whole.

Committees which, in some cases, were practically verbatim statements of what was said, and, in all cases, were detailed in character. Sometimes press communiques were issued of the proceedings of even the sub-committees. It does not need to be said, however, that an important part of the work of the Delegates to the Conference took the form of highly confidential interviews between themselves and the representatives or spokesmen of the other Powers whereby preliminary understandings were arrived at before final action was taken either in the sub-committees or Committees of the Whole.

In connection and close association with the Conference, a number of highly important treaty agreements were arrived at and reported to the Conference. These treaties, the two most important of which were the so-called "Four Power Pact" and the Sino-Japanese Shantung Treaty, were reported to the Conference and noted upon its official records, and thus obtained, morally and politically, if not juristically, a more solemn recognition than if they had been negotiated and signed by the Powers concerned under ordinary circumstances. But they did not result from approving votes in and by the Conference itself. The relation to the Conference of the Shantung Treaty and of the Conversations leading to its drafting and signing, will be more particularly discussed in the chapter devoted to the Shantung Question.

The Conference, following the precedent of all other similar gatherings, created for itself a GeneralSecretariat, headed by a Secretary-General, whose

function it was to keep the official records of the Conference, and who, it is announced, will prepare and distribute to the participating Governments an official report of the proceedings and determinations of the Conference. The Honorable John W. Garrett was elected Secretary-General. The American Secretary of State, Honorable Charles Evans Hughes, was unanimously elected Chairman of the Conference, and of such committees as he might be a member. It was agreed that, at the Committees' meetings, each Delegation should be accompanied by one secretary and one technical adviser. It was understood that each Delegation, through its own secretary, should keep minutes of the proceedings: also that the Secretary-General should keep a fairly full record, and should, in consultation with the secretaries of the several Delegations, draw up a résumé thereof which should be subject to the approval of each Delegation. It was further agreed that, at any time, a Delegate might call upon a stenographer to take down verbatim any statement which he might wish to make and have it thus recorded in the minutes. In actual practice statements or declarations by the Delegations were frequently mimeographed and distributed to the other Delegations, sometimes in advance of their presentation.

It should also be said that not infrequently, in exercise of the right of each Delegation to revise the reports made by the Secretary-General of what was said by them, considerable elisions were made. As it was not known to the other Delegations that these