ABSTRACT
WHEN the European War broke out in August 1914 the position was that Japan had firmly established herself in Korea, Manchuria and Mongolia, which regions were to serve as points d’appui for further penetration into China.1 In addition, she had ear-marked Fukien, the province lying opposite to Formosa, as a future sphere of Japanese influence, and by her intrigues with the revolutionaries had obtained a considerable influence at the strategic points of the Yangtze Valley, a region, supposed by the Treaty of 1895 to be reserved to Great Britain, or alternatively to be open to all nations. When, therefore, hostilities broke out in Europe, it was recognized throughout the Far East that a period of sensational events in connection with the Extreme Orient had set in. China’s whole future was set at stake by the outbreak of the European War. In China itself nervousness reigned. In Japan there was almost complete calm, with the deep and satisfactory knowledge that the moment for which Japanese policy had planned and waited had at last arrived. The greyhounds had been straining in the leash for three years and could now be slipped.
