An American Diplomat in China

The Government was now confronted with the question of whether its delegates at Paris should or should not sign the Treaty and Covenant. The Chinese people were opposed to signi...

"Japan is going to take advantage of this war to get control of China." In these words President Yuan Shih-kai summed up the situation when I made my first call on him after ret...

The time came for the United States to sever relations with the German Kaiser's government. I had taken advantage of the clear sunshine and mild air on Sunday, February 4, 1917,...

"The whole Chinese people hold the doctrines of Confucius most sacred," declared President Yuan Shih-kai in his decree of November 26, 1913, which re-introduced much of the old...

I have said that a little vision and the application of American scientific methods would transform China. Chang Chien had instanced the Hwai River valley, and the ease with whi...

Yuan Shih-kai, a ruler whose power was personal, whose theories of government were those of an absolute monarch, who believed that in himself lay the hope of his people; China i...

Everybody thought that the monarchy was to be proclaimed on New Year's Day, 1916. Disaffection, it was realized, though hitherto confined to a remote province, might spread; del...

My family had gone to Peitaiho for the summer. I was staying at the residence alone with Mr. F.L. Belin, who had recently come to Peking to join my staff. I slept rather late on...

This exclamation from a Chinese seemed amusing. It came on the evening of the red dust-storm that enveloped Peking, during one of the long after-dinner conversations with Liang...

Negotiations had been proceeding all through the autumn of 1916, between the Corporation and the Chinese Government, concerning the modifications which the former desired to int...

If one came it would break in China--of that we were convinced. Unless it settled China's problems the Peace Conference would fall disastrously short of safeguarding the world a...

I have noted that Dr. Chen Chin-tao, Chinese Minister of Finance, was put in prison. Doctor Chen had administered Chinese finances strictly and well, in a most difficult period....

"Yuan Shih-kai is trying to make himself emperor, we hear from Peking," Mr. E.T. Williams remarked to me at the Department of State when I saw him there in July, 1915. The repor...

It was at President Yuan Shih-kai's reception, New Year's Day, 1914; the diplomatic corps and high officials were there. The Empress Dowager's residence, now occupied by the Pre...

In the joy of the world victory everybody felt so. But when I returned to Peking early in October, 1918, I found that things had gone from bad to worse. Money had been squandere...

The past may become in the human present more alive than ever. John Richard Green finds in the old records of the guilds of Berwick an enactment "that where many bodies are foun...

A crowd of students appeared before the legation gate on the 5th of May clamouring to see me. I was absent, that day, on a trip to the temple above Men Tou-kou and so missed see...

I found in Peking several good observers of political life, especially Dr. George Morrison, Mr. B. Lenox Simpson, and Mr. W.H. Donald. All three had the training in observation...

_September 3_: Judge Elbert H. Gary has just been in Peking for ten days with Mrs. Gary and a small party. I took them to call on President Li who is now living in a private res...

Brigandage is an established institution in China, where it has operated so long that people have become accustomed to it and take it for granted as a natural visitation. At thi...

There arrived in Peking in the fall of 1915 the members of a commission sent by the Rockefeller Foundation, to formulate definite plans for a great scientific and educational en...

The Chinese were not slow in showing what conclusions they deduced from the withdrawal of the American Government from the Six-Power Consortium. On November 27th, two cabinet mi...

Thus General Tuan Chi-jui, then Premier, conveyed to me on the 2nd of August the news of China's further entrance into world politics. I had known about this from other sources....

During my first absence in America Mr. Peck had been appointed consul at Tsingtau, and Dr. Charles D. Tenney had been sent as his successor. My predecessor, Mr. W.J. Calhoun, in...

As the second year of the Hwai River conservancy option was about to expire, something positive had to be done in order to make an actual beginning on this work. Mr. W.F. Carey,...

It was in rather an indirect way that I learned of the secret negotiations which had been going on between the head of the State Department in Washington and the Japanese Govern...

The time was come for China to put money in her purse. She was sure she could do it, and sure that the United States, her great, rich sponsor and friend, would help her to the m...

Mr. Obata had succeeded Baron Hayashi as Japanese minister in December. He was a dour, silent man who had been much in China, as consular officer and in the Legation. He had sat...

The students of Peking "started something." For the first time in thousands of years public opinion was aroused and organized in China. Through the action of the students, with...

The passing of Yuan Shih-kai left the ground clear for the nurturing of a real republic in China. Would those in control be real republicans, or would they be merely politicians...

Through recent developments China has been put in the forefront of international interest. The world is beginning to have an idea of its importance. Those who have long known it...

Yuan Shih-kai, President of the Chinese Republic, was short of stature and thickset; but his expressive face, his quick gestures, his powerful neck and bullet head, gave him the...

Modelling largely on American example, China is striving to create truly representative political institutions. Personal rule, imperial traditions, hamper the Chinese in their e...

On August 8, 1914, Japanese war vessels appeared near Tsingtau. Japan suggested on August 10th that the British Government might call for the coöperation of Japan under the term...