From Isolation to Leadership, Revised / A Review of American Foreign Policy

by John Holladay Latané

By Christmas it seemed that the Conference had accomplished about all that was possible, and that it would adjourn as soon as the agreements already reached could be put into treaty form and signed. At the end of the first week in January it looked as if the Chinese and Japanese had reached a deadlock, and that the Conference would adjourn without a satisfactory adjustment of any of the Chinese problems. Mr. Balfour and other important delegates had engaged return passage, and all indications pointed to an early dissolution of the Conference. But the unexpected happened. At an informal gathering of Administration leaders at the White House on Saturday night, January 7, stock was taken of the work of the Conference, and some of the senators present expressed the opinion that if it adjourned without doing more for China, there would be little hope of getting the treaties ratified. As a result Secretary Hughes persuaded the British and Japanese delegates to cancel their sailings, and with characteristic energy and determination took personal charge of the Far Eastern situation, which up to this time had been left mainly to Mr. Root. After a little pressure had been brought to bear on the Chinese by President Harding, and probably on the Japanese by Mr. Balfour, Secretary Hughes was finally able to announce at the plenary session of February 1 that China and Japan had reached an agreement as to the terms on which Shantung was to be restored. At the same session the agreements in regard to China reached by the Committee on Far Eastern Affairs were announced. These agreements were finally embodied in two treaties, one dealing with the tariff and the other with the open door, and a series of ten resolutions.

Since the middle of the last century Chinese tariffs have been regulated by treaties with foreign powers, the customs service organized and administered by foreigners, and the receipts mortgaged to meet the interest on foreign loans. China has never been permitted to levy duties in excess of 5 per cent., and, in fact, as a result of the methods of valuation the duties have not averaged above 3 1/2 per cent. This has been an unjust state of affairs, and has deprived the Chinese Government of what would naturally be one of its main sources of revenue. By the new agreement there is to be an immediate revision of tariff valuations so as to make the 5 per cent. effective. China is also to be allowed to levy a surtax on certain articles, mainly luxuries, which will yield an additional revenue. It is estimated that the total annual increase in revenue derived from maritime customs will be about $150,000,000 silver. It is claimed by some, with a certain degree of truth, that any increase in Chinese customs duties will be immediately covered by liens to secure new loans, and that putting money into the Chinese treasury just now is like pouring it into a rat hole. As soon as China is able to establish a stable and honest government, she should, without question, be relieved of all treaty restrictions on her tariffs.

The Conference also took certain steps to restore to China other sovereign rights long impaired by the encroachments of foreign powers. A commission is to be appointed to investigate the administration of justice with a view to the ultimate extinction of extraterritorial rights now enjoyed by foreigners. The powers also agreed to abandon not later than January 1, 1923, their existing postal agencies in China, provided an efficient Chinese postal service be maintained. The system of foreign post offices in China has been the subject of great abuses, as through these agencies goods of various kinds, including opium and other drugs, have been smuggled into China. The powers further made a general promise to aid the Chinese Government in the unification of railways into a general system under Chinese control. They also agreed to restore to China all radio stations other than those regulated by treaty or maintained by foreign governments within their legation limits.

In the treaty relating to the open door, the Contracting Powers other than China pledged themselves to the following principles:

"(1) To respect the sovereignty, the independence, and the territorial and administrative integrity of China;

"(2) To provide the fullest and most unembarrassed opportunity to China to develop and maintain for herself an effective and stable government;

"(3) To use their influence for the purpose of effectually establishing and maintaining the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations throughout the territory of China;

"(4) To refrain from taking advantage of conditions in China in order to seek special rights or privileges which would abridge the rights of subjects or citizens of friendly States, and from countenancing action inimical to the security of such States."

China on her part accepted fully the principle of the open door, and pledged herself for the first time to respect it. Pledges to respect the open door in China have been made by foreign powers upon various occasions in the past and broken as often as made. The expression "equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations" is not new. It occurs in the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, in the Root-Takahira agreement of 1908, and in numerous other documents. In recent years, however, the United States has been the only power which has tried to preserve the open door in China. Most of the other powers have regarded the Chinese situation as hopeless, and have believed that the only solution was to let foreign powers come in and divide and rule the territory of the empire. In view of the new treaty the open door is no longer merely an American policy, but an international policy, and responsibility for its enforcement rests not on the United States alone but on all nine parties to the treaty.

The agenda or program of the Conference offered as one of the subjects to be considered the status of existing commitments in China. When Secretary Hughes brought this subject up before the Far Eastern Committee, Japan entered an emphatic objection to its consideration, and the matter was dropped immediately without argument. The treaty, therefore, is not retroactive, for it recognizes the status quo in Manchuria and to a less extent in other parts of China. The saving clause of the new agreement is, however, a resolution providing for the establishment of an international board of reference, to which questions arising in regard to the open door may be referred.