The Truth about China and Japan/Document D

by B. L. Putnam Weale

(D)

THE SECRET ARMS CONTRACTS BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN

Note.—There has been great difficulty in obtaining even in 1919, when a world-wide disclosure of secret agreements has come and when militarism is publicly denounced, any proper and complete statement of the several Secret Arms agreements made between the Northern militarists in China and the Japanese War-Office—both parties acting independently of their Cabinets. The writer has, however, succeeded in recovering the complete specifications of two agreements, one—undated—made in 1916 or 1917 and the other in 1918, the first involving an expenditure of Yen 14,866,798, Japanese currency, and the second an expenditure of Yen 23,600,739, Japanese currency—or a total of upwards of 38 million yen—say four million pounds sterling. Whether there have been earlier or later indents has not been established, but the two agreements follow a set plan, and from the study of the Chinese text seem to point to the existence of a master-document. Certainly, since the signature of the May, 1918, secret Sino-Japanese Military Agreement, there has been established a settled procedure between Japanese and Chinese corruptionists. Arms negotiations, although now suspended owing to the international situation and the tumult at Paris, were at the beginning of 1919 still being continued along these lines. According to inspired statements in the Japanese press, the following was the plan nipped in the bud by developments at the Paris Conference:

1. Arsenals to be established in Tientsin, Hankow and Shanghai to be jointly conducted by China and Japan, with Japanese expert engineers and material supplied.
2. The Chinese Government to purchase direct from the said arsenals or from Japan for ten consecutive years arms and ammunition to the amount of Yen 300,000,000, that is, Yen 30,000,000 annually.
3. During this period of ten years, China not to place any restrictions upon the exportation of iron to Japan.
4. The money needed for expenses of the Chinese Government in making purchases of arms to be loaned in the form of temporary advances from Japan, that is, by the Taiping Company.
5. Until the Chinese Government shall have made full payment for the foregoing purchases, Japan shall have the priority right of supplying arms to China.

It is plain from these proposals, which almost matured, that the arms section of the Group V of the Twenty-one Demands of 1915 is still the acknowledged goal of the military party in Japan. It may be remarked that there is no reason for China to purchase war-materials abroad as her government arsenals have a large capacity. But the military group required immediate delivery of large quantities of rifles, ammunition, field-guns and equipment, so that they would be independent of the Ministry of War, which must render account to the Cabinet. Thus what Japan has deliberately done has been to break down the fabric of government in China—and create a situation precisely analogous to what Germany did with the Young Turks. The text that follows is the first few folios of the Arms Agreement of 1916 (or 1917).

(Translation)

An Agreement made between the Taiping Company and the War Office of the Republic of China so that the former may receive an order from the latter to supply the arms. The quantities and cost are specified as follows:—

Section I.		Yen
1.	40,000 '38' rifles, at Y54.60	2,184,000.00
2.	Ammunition, 8 million rounds, every 10,000 cartridges to cost 1,105 yen	884,000.00
	Total Yen	3,068,000.00
		Yen
1.	120 machine guns at Y2,131.31	255,757.20
2.	6 million rounds ammunition, every 10,000 rounds to cost Y1,235	741,000.00
3.	20 material cases 'A' mark, at Y507	10,140.00
4.	360 ammunition boxes 'A' mark, at Y51.35	18,486.00
5.	120 units complete equipment for ammunition-ponies, at Y182.00	21,840.00
6.	20 units equipment for use with material cases, at Y176.80	3,536.00
7.	360 saddlery-outfits for mounted conveyance of machine-gun ammunition, at Y187.70	65,052.00
	Total Yen	1,115,811.20
Section II.		Yen
1.	120 mountain guns, at Y7,800	936,000.00
2.	120 cases of the First material cases, at Y608.40	73,008.00
3.	120 cases of the Second material cases, at Y253.50	30,420.00
4.	20 boxes of the First reserved boxes, at Y1,335.10	26,702.00
5.	20 boxes of the Third reserved boxes, at Y89.70	1,794.00
6.	20 boxes of the Fourth reserved boxes, at Y89.70	1,794.00
7.	20 suits reserved materials, at Y439.40	8,788.00
8.	480 ammunition boxes, at Y78.00	37,440.00
9.	840 sets of cavalry-equipment, at Y175.50	147,420.00
10.	340 sets horse-equipment, at Y241.80	82,212.00
11.	280 sets horse-equipment, at Y241.80	67,704.00
12.	280 sets for the using of larger frames, at Y271.70	76,076.00
13.	520 sets for ammunition boxes, at Y170.30	88,556.00
14.	40 sets for carriage camp equipment, at Y170.30	6,812.00
15.	20 sets of iron materials, at Y546.00	10,920.00
16.	72,000 high explosive shells, at Y35.75	257,400.00
17.	12,000 time-fuse shells, at Y78	93,600.00
	Total Yen	5,133,362.00

Note.—Sections that follow are merely lists of the same materials with amounts and prices specified.

The contract of July, 1918, is a double order of the same military supplies. Thus in the Second Contract the main items specified are:

85,000 rifles
67 million rounds small-arms ammunition
198 machine-guns
95 million rounds machine-gun ammunition
162 mountain-guns
81,000 high explosive shells
16,200 time-fuse shells
72 field-guns
Etc. Etc.

From these figures it is plain that the Japanese military party deliberately and secretly supplied their Chinese tools with a carefully-drawn-up list of material sufficient to conduct a long civil war and to butcher whole provinces, the larger number of mountain-guns being specially provided for warfare in the provinces south and west of the Yangtsze.

The indictment against militarist Japan, then, not only is that she deliberately prevented China from participating actively in the war in Europe, but that she lent all possible aid to movements calculated to disrupt China.

If German officers are to be brought to trial for offences conducted during the war, the guilty Japanese officers ought to meet the same fate.