After
the Coup d'etat of the 4th November, 1913, and the scattering of
Parliament, it was an American Adviser who was set to work on the
new "Constitution"; and although a Japanese, Dr. Ariga, who was in
receipt of a princely salary, aided and abetted this work, his
endorsement of the dictatorial rule was looked upon as traitorous
by the bulk of his countrymen. Similarly, it was perfectly well-
known that Yuan Shih-kai was spending large sums of money in Tokio
in bribing certain organs of the Japanese Press and in attempting
to win adherents among Japanese members of Parliament. Remarkable
stories are current which compromise very highly-placed Japanese
but which the writer hesitates to set down in black and white as
documentary proof is not available. In any case, be this as it
may, it was felt in Tokio that the time had arrived to give a
proper definition to the relations between the two states,--the
more so as Yuan Shih-kai, by publicly proclaiming a small war-zone
in Shantung within the limits of which the Japanese were alone
permitted to wage war against the Germans, had shown himself
indifferent to the majesty of Japan. The Japanese having captured
Kiaochow by assault before the end of 1914 decided to accept the
view that a de facto Dictatorship existed in China. Therefore on
the 18th of January, 1915, the Japanese Minister, Dr. Hioki,
personally served on Yuan Shih-kai the now famous Twenty-one
Demands, a list designed to satisfy every present and future need
of Japanese policy and to reduce China to a state of vassalage.
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