ABSTRACT
THE Chinese Republic having been established and Yuan-shi-Kai elected as the Provisional President, the two questions which most occupied the attention of the Powers were those of recognition and of the Six-Power Loan. It was out of these that the Russo-Japanese entente arose. When Japan was invited to participate in the loan she agreed on the express condition that in view of her interests in that province Manchuria should be excluded from the scope of the loan. Having extorted this concession, she circularized the Powers, suggesting that they should act together in the matter of recognition of the Republic and that the limits of the new Government’s authority should be recognized as those of the old Chinese Empire. By this astute move Japan distinctly scored, for the Powers in accepting the proposal tacitly acknowledged that Japanese interests in China were sufficiently important to justify her leadership in this matter. (That Japan later broke her own agreement by sending in her recognition the evening before the day fixed for joint recognition by all the Powers is only another instance of the little importance she attaches to agreements.) The success of this move was very flattering to her amour propre and did much to soothe the more Jingo portion of the nation and the press, whose susceptibilities had been much ruffled by the earlier failures of her diplomacy.
