Never was a more
sweeping program of supervision presented, and small wonder if
Chinese when they learnt of this climax exclaimed that the fate of
Korea was to be their own. For a number of weeks after the
presentation of these demands everything remained clothed in
impenetrable mystery, and despite every effort on the part of
diplomatists reliable details of what was occurring could not be
obtained. Gradually, however, the admission was forced that the
secrecy being preserved was due to the Japanese threat that
publicity would be met with the harshest reprisals; and presently
the veil was entirely lifted by newspaper publication and foreign
Ambassadors began making inquiries in Tokio. The nature and scope
of the Twenty-one Demands could now be no longer hidden; and in
response to the growing indignation which began to be voiced by
the press and the pressure which British diplomacy brought to
bear, Japan found it necessary to modify some of the most
important items. She had held twenty-four meetings at the Chinese
Foreign Office, and although the Chinese negotiators had been
forced to give way in such matters as extending the "leasing"
periods of railways and territories in Manchuria and in admitting
the Japanese right to succeed to all German interests and rights
in Shantung (Group I and II), in the essential matters of the
Hanyehping concessions (Group III) and the noxious demands of
Group V China had stood absolutely firm, declining even to discuss
some of the items.
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