Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 02.djvu/541

CHINA 475 CHINA as a military power which might have resulted from the raising, training, and equipment of armies. Then too the con- jecture has been hazarded that if the war resulted victoriously for the Allies, China might advance claims in the Peace Conference that might threaten the Japanese hegemony in Asia. That this latter motive was a prominent one is on the question until the war was within a few days of ending in Nov. 1919. China's active military participation in the conflict was practically nil. She offered to send an army of 100,000 men to the western front, but the offer was declined because of the lack of tonnage. She did, however, contribute the services of 130,000 coolies, who worked behind JliJWjHIIIflPM! uiUij>_n-n BSOpM TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, PEKING, CHINA shown by the correspondence between the Russian Ambassador and his government, relating conversations the former had had with Viscount Motono, the Japanese Foreign Minister, in which the Japanese statesman had emphasized the necessity of safeguarding Japan's interests at the Peace Conference. Despite this opposi- tion of her powerful neighbor, however, China formally declared war against Germany, Aug. 14, 1917. The govern- ment, in taking this step dispensed with the sanction of Parliament, which was not then in session. The Chamber of Deputies endorsed the action nearly three months later, but the Senate did not vote the lines in France and Belgium, and thereby released a corresponding number of Caucasians for actual fighting. She was a valuable industrial ally also along the same lines in Mesopotamia and in German East Africa. Many of_ the British ships were manned by Chmese sailors. Despite this contribution, how- ever, the services rendered by China were thought by the Allies to fall far short of what should have been afforded, and a complaint to that effect was made, on Nov. 4, 1918, when the British Minister at Peking, with the concurrence of the other Allied representatives, handed to the Chinese Government a memorandum