There is one more point. At the beginning of the present
negotiations it was mutually agreed to observe secrecy but
unfortunately a few days after the presentation of the demands by
Japan an Osaka newspaper published an "Extra" giving the text of
the demands. The foreign and the Chinese press has since been
paying considerable attention to this question and frequently
publishing pro-Chinese or pro-Japanese comments in order to call
forth the World's conjecture--a matter which the Chinese
Government deeply regrets.
The Chinese Government has never carried on any newspaper campaign
and the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly
declared this to the Japanese Minister.
In conclusion, the Chinese Government wishes to express its hope
that the negotiations now pending between the two countries will
soon come to an end and whatever misgivings foreign countries
entertain toward the present situation may be quickly dispelled.
The Peking Government, although fully aware of the perils now
confronting it, had dared to draft a complete reply to the revised
Demands and had reduced Japanese redundancy to effective limits.
Not only were various articles made more compact, but the
phraseology employed conveyed unmistakably, if in a somewhat
subtle way, that China was not a subordinate State treating with a
suzerain. Moreover, after dealing succinctly and seriously with
Groups I, II and III, the Chinese reply terminates abruptly, the
other points in the Japanese List being left entirely unanswered.
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