I noticed soon after Admiral Hintze's arrival that his relations with his Austrian colleague were not the most cordial; these two seemed to coöperate with difficulty. They were men entirely different in temperament. The German was a man of the world, inspired with the ideal of German military power and looking on international politics as a keen and clever intellectual game. Concerning Hindenburg, he said to me: "There is a man who makes no excuses for his existence." The Austrian minister was a man of scholarly impulse, with a broad sympathy for humankind, deploring the shallow game of politics, and hoping for a more humane and reasonable system of government than that of the political state.
Mr. Sun Pao-chi, Minister for Foreign Affairs, resigned on January 28th to head the Audit Board, and was succeeded by Mr. Lu Tseng-tsiang. Mr. Lu had enjoyed an extensive experience in Europe. He had acquired a thorough mastery of French and married a Belgian lady, to whom he was deeply devoted. Like his predecessor, he abstained from internal politics. He was called to office when the exceedingly difficult negotiations with Japan concerning the twenty-one demands were begun, and it became his duty to carry through a very painful and ungrateful task. Mr. Lu was interested in general political affairs in their broader aspects, and gave special attention to international law.
I was frequently a guest at the house of Mr. Liang Tun-yen, the Minister of Communications. He was easy-going, prepared to talk business there rather than at the Ministry, where I would see him frequently also, about the Hukuang railways. The engineer of the British section was steadfastly trying to secure standards of British engineering and manufacture, to which it would be difficult for American manufacturers to conform. The Legation was beset with protests concerning orders for materials which Americans did not like, since they embodied the special practice of one partner to the contract. Thus matters of a technical nature had to be argued between the Legation and the Ministry of Communications. Mr. Liang himself was not a railway expert. For example, he once spoke enthusiastically about clearing up the Grand Canal, exclaiming: "then you could go from Peking to Shanghai in a houseboat." We often fell back on the more general features of the political situation in China, concerning which Mr. Liang displayed a gentle skepticism for all proposed reforms. With respect to railroad concessions, he was hostile to the idea of percentage construction contracts, believing it dangerous to measure the returns of an engineering firm by the sum expended on the works. I argued that since the professional standing of such a firm was involved it could not afford to run up the cost of the works merely to increase its own commission. But I did not overcome his skepticism.
EMPEROR YUAN SHIH-KAI
"Yuan Shih-kai is trying to make himself emperor, we hear from Peking," Mr. E.T. Williams remarked to me at the Department of State when I saw him there in July, 1915. The report said that an imperialist movement in behalf of Yuan Shih-kai had been launched in Peking. As there had been frequent reports during the year of such attempts to set up an empire, I was not at first inclined to give much credence to the rumours.
Upon my return to San Francisco in September, this time to take steamer for China, I met Dr. Wellington Koo, who had just come on a special mission. I had been confidentially informed that he would probably be designated as minister to the United States, to take the place of Mr. Shah. The Department of State had directed me to delay my departure in order to confer with Doctor Koo upon recent developments in China. On the day we spent together we went over all that had happened since my absence. The reports which had already been received that a movement had been started to make Yuan Shih-kai emperor I then considered improbable, in view of all the difficulties which the enterprise must encounter, both internationally and from the Chinese opposition. Doctor Koo confirmed this feeling and said that Yuan Shih-kai himself was very doubtful. He mentioned the Goodnow memorandum, however, as a possible factor. I was considerably surprised later to discover that the main object of Doctor Koo's mission was to sound public opinion in America and Europe concerning the assumption of the imperial dignity by Yuan Shih-kai, and to prepare the ground for it. During my return voyage to China the matter quickly came to a head, so that when I arrived in Peking on October 1st I was confronted with an entirely new situation.
To understand the movement it is necessary to review briefly the significant facts of Peking politics during the summer of 1915. A concerted effort had been made to combat the Liang Shih-yi faction. The opposition centred in the so-called Anhui Party, which was largely militaristic, but in which civilian leaders like the Premier, Hsu Shih-chang, the Chief Secretary of the cabinet, Yang Shih-chi, the Minister of Finance, as well as the Minister of Communications, were prominent.