Paul S. Reinsch

“ When Chinese children came to play with our children at the Legation, I was always impressed by their dignity of demeanour and their observance of the courtesies while their elders were present. On the faces of these little heirs of the Holy Duke the composure of eighty generations of culture and traditions sat freshly; and it by no means alloyed their delight, which was unstinted, in American toys and dolls.
This transmutation of the old into new life is seen everywhere in China. The day comes every morning fresh as a flower. ”

“ No doubt there is a general belief that secret diplomacy and ever-increasing armaments led Europe into the terrible destruction of the Great War and that the continuance of such methods is chiefly to blame for the deplorable condition since the Armistice. There may be deeper causes, but these evidences are so obtrusive that they naturally attract most attention and are given most blame for the evils we endure. It is plain that secret diplomacy is a potent cause for continued distrust, fear and hate. There are few statesmen that would not shrink from deliberately planning and staging a war. ”

“ The Chinese are remarkably free from self-consciousness, and therefore are good actors; as one sees the thousands passing back and forth on the streets, one feels that they, too, are all acting. Here are not the headlong rush and elbowing scramble of the crowded streets of a Western metropolis. All walk and ride with dignity, as if conscious of a certain importance, representing in themselves not the eager purpose presently to get to a certain place, but rather a leisurely flow of existence, carrying traditions and memories of centuries in which the present enterprise is but a minor incident. ”

“ If democracy means anything, its significance for the welfare of humanity must lie in the value of allowing constantly more and more minds to participate in the great things of the world. Not only would such participation seem to be a natural right of the human mind but also the things most worth while can be achieved only when the ablest and best can freely lend their efforts. To all this a narrow system of secret management by a limited hierarchy is hostile. The old diplomacy rests entirely on skepticism as to the wisdom and self-control of the people. ”

“ Indeed, it is nothing short of ridiculous to declare war against a foreign power when every man and every resource has to be kept in hand to meet possible civil strife and when the authority of the Central Government is effective in only a doubtful half of the country. It is difficult to see what benefit the Entente Powers expect to derive by urging such a government to take such a step, a step which is detrimental to the best interests of China and contrary to the good advice tendered by the U.S., with whom Great Britain, at least, associated herself. ”

“ There has always been the assumption that certain things were essential to national prestige and could not be questioned; it is only when the actually existing broader base of national political life is organized also for active control of foreign affairs, that these considerations will have their full weight. Only the most exceptional statesmen could lift themselves out of the narrow groove of tradition and precedent; and more exceptional still, in fact all but impossible, is the capacity of one man to represent in himself in just proportion, all the interests and feelings of a nation. ”

“ 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 itself a nation of individualists, among whom there was as yet no unifying national sense, no inbred love of country, no traditions of personal responsibility toward their government, no sense that they themselves shared in the making of the laws which ordered their lives—these, I think, were the first clear impressions I had of the land to which I came as envoy in the early days of the Republic. ”

“ You cannot lay down—and I do not think you would be wise to lay down, an absolute rule that under no circumstances, and for no object, could you so far concede the point as to say that a treaty is to be made which is not to become public property. I am perfectly ready to admit that that is not a process which, to me, is a very agreeable one. To reduce secret treaties to the narrowest possible limits should, I think, be the object of every responsible statesman who has the control of foreign affairs. ”

“ But it was not until January 22nd that I learned the astonishing nature of the Japanese proposals. Calling on one of the Chinese ministers on current business, I found him perturbed. He finally confided to me, almost with tears, that Japan had made categorical demands which, if conceded, would destroy the independence of his country and reduce her to a servile state. He then told me in general terms their nature, saying: "Control of natural resources, finances, army! What will be left to China! Our people are being punished for their peacefulness and sense of justice." ”

“ While from the point of view of traditional diplomacy, and of international relations as they were up to the Great War, it seems quite natural that democratic control should be thought by many to be unpractical; and while indeed no one can flatter himself that through a change of method the conduct of international affairs could suddenly be rendered more wise and entirely effective towards the public welfare, yet I cannot avoid the conclusion that there is a wrong orientation in the emphasis of the need of secrecy and of the unfitness of the people to deal with problems of foreign affairs. ”

“ Heaven, Thou dost look down on us and givest us the nation. All-seeing and all-hearing, everywhere, yet how near and how close: We come before Thee on this winter solstice day when the air assumes a new life ”

“ Those who view the modern state as a purely predatory organization,—for exploitation within and without,—point to the methods, practices and results of diplomacy as one of the plainest indications of the sinister nature of the political state. Such criticism cannot be safely brushed aside as utterly unreasonable; it should rather call forth a searching inquiry as to whether, as a matter of fact, the conduct of foreign affairs could not and should not be brought into greater consonance with genuinely democratic principles, and be placed on the sound basis of well-informed public support. ”

“ The world is beginning to have an idea of its importance. Those who have long known it, who have given attention to its traditions and the sources of its social and industrial strength, have the conviction that China will become a factor of the first magnitude in the composition of the world of the twentieth century. They have penetrated beyond the idea that China is a land of topsy-turvy, the main function of which is to amuse the outsider with unexpected social customs, and which, from a political point of view, is in a state bordering upon chaos. ”

“ As this conception gains in strength, the center of effort in diplomacy will not be to conceal separatist aims and special plots, but to bring out into the clear light of day the common interests of men. The common work for them to do in making the world habitable, in dignifying the life of men and protecting them against mutual terror and massacre,–that ideal of coöperation and forbearance, is as yet only partially embodied in our international practices, although it arouses the fervid hopes of men throughout the world. ”

“ The report of the Engineers' Commission which investigated the Hwai River Conservancy project made that enterprise look even more attractive than I had anticipated. The value of the redeemed land alone would be more than enough to pay the cost of the improvements. I felt that the work would give great credit to the American name. Not only would it assure the livelihood of multitudes through the redemption of millions of the most fertile acres in China, but it would give to the Chinese a living example of how, by scientific methods, the very foundations of their life could be improved. ”

“ Nothing shows so clearly how human development has halted at this point, as the fact that it should still require an argument to show the necessity of publicity and lawfulness with respect to the most essential interests of the vast populations that make up the international family.
The record and constant practice of the United States, as well as her great actual and potential power, fit her above all others to be a leader in the establishment of this principle. The American nation possesses a great moral capital in the confidence and trust that the peoples of the world repose in it. ”

“ The Chinese people were being whirled in the vortex of old and new. The old organization was beginning to crumble; the new had not yet taken shape. It was easy to find spots of weakness and corruption, aggravation of which would bring about an actual demoralization of social and political life and the obstruction of every improvement; bandits could be furnished with arms; weak persons craving a stimulant could be drugged with morphia; the credit of native institutions could be ruined; and the most corrupt elements in the government encouraged. ”

“ At that Court, presided over by a woman of great ambition whose every movement and mood the diplomats felt necessary to take into account and carefully to calculate, at a time when England and France as well as other nations were involved in almost constant hostilities, the sharpest characteristics of eighteenth century diplomacy came to the surface. Politics is seen as a game of forfeits and favors in which wars were made for personal and dynastic reasons and territories traded off in the spirit of the gamester without regard to natural or ethnic facts, or the welfare of the population. ”

“ I did not lose my earnest goodwill toward the Japanese people but I could not shut my eyes to Japanese imperialist politics with its unconscionably ruthless and underhanded actions and its fundamental [Pg 335] lack of every idea of fair play. The continuance of such methods could only bring disaster; their abandonment is a condition of peace and real welfare. The aims and methods of Japan's military policy in the Continent of Asia can bring good to no one, least of all to the Japanese people, notwithstanding any temporary gains. Such ambitions cannot permanently succeed. ”

“ The secrecy of the procedure of the Peace Conference—which had been heralded as an assembly of the peoples for carrying out and making permanent those great principles for which men had grimly and silently suffered and died and which had been eloquently voiced by the American President—seemed to be so complete a return to the old methods of diplomacy that from the day when the muzzle was clamped on, public faith in the conference and its results was shaken. The motives of the men who made this decision were probably good. ”

“ Looking down upon a Chinese street, with multitudes of walkers and runners passing back and forth, mingled among donkey carts, riders on horse- or donkey-back, mule litters, rickshaws, camel caravans, flocks of animals led to sale and slaughter, together with rapidly flying automobiles—all gives the impression of perfect control of motion and avoidance, of crowding and scuffling, and recalls the movements of practised dancers on a crowded ballroom floor. ”

“ Manipulative, and hence secret, diplomacy is in fact the most complete expression of the purely political factor in human affairs. To many, it will seem only a survival of a hyperpolitical era, as human society now tends to outgrow and transcend politics for more comprehensive, pervasive and essential principles of action. We need not here rehearse the fundamental character of politics as a struggle for recognized authority to determine the action of individuals, with the use of external compulsion. ”

“ Carey brought his unwarped intelligence to bear with great freshness on Chinese affairs, which he discussed in the language of an American contractor and business man who reduced everything to terms of getting something done. To observe how a man of his training, instincts, and tradition, so utterly different from the Chinese, remained in constant, intimate intercourse and joyous mutual understanding with them, made one believe that there must be real bonds of sympathy between Americans and the Chinese. ”

“ It ended with a passionate declaration that this country would be disgraced if we did not declare war, and the reasoning of the speech proved that Sir Edward Grey had committed himself irretrievably. It left the House of Commons convinced that it had in honor no choice but to join France in arms. It is an epitome of the reasoning by which Sir Edward Grey had been brought to believe that he could say and do what he said and did without limiting his freedom of action. But if this is legitimate we ought not to keep up the pretense that we are a self-governing nation in foreign affairs. ”