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Show ofjIp TREATY Technical Adviser Peace Delegates Before the Senate Committee. WILSON ASKS ADVICE . United States Placed In Difficult Position By the 1915 Treaty. WASHINGTON, Aug 22 A first hand story of the negotiations which resulted in the treaty provision clvin..; Japan control in Shantung province, hina, was told to the senate foreign! relations committee today by rmf- -sor E. T. Williams, formetly the state department's expert on Ear Eastern affairs, who acted as a technical adviser ad-viser to the American peace delegates. Professor W illiams said he had "ob-jeqied "ob-jeqied ery strongly" to the Shantung settlement, but that his resignation1 from the peace commission had not been due to hi. opposition. On April 22 the witness said. Prej-d Prej-d ni Wilson sent for hint and asked him which of the proposed alternatives would be less injurious to China the transfer oi the German Shantung rights to Japanese, or insistence on thol execution Of Japan's treaty with China crowing out of ihe fatuous twenty-one I d mands of 1915. ' I replied," continued Professor Williams, Wil-liams, 'that I hoped neither course would be found nec isary. The president pres-ident said that unfortunately Great Britain and Prance were bound by certain engagements with Japan to support Japan's elaims in Shantung and that Lloyd George aid he would bow only on the consideration that the 1915 treaty was executed. U. S. Faces Unconscionable Agreement "The president added that the war! scmed to have been foushl to estab lish the sanctity of treaties and while j some of them were unconscionable jr looked as though il would be necessary neces-sary to recognize them " The witness said he suggested that since the 1915 treaty was exacted b force it ought not to be binding, but! that the president replied .lapan miht j not be willing to recognize that the) were made by force. Professor Wf!-i Hams then suggested that the provision provis-ion have a blanket provision that all German property :n China should be1 turned over to China and that any1 rights taken from Germany by Japan! should be relumed to China within cue! year. Later the expert advisers of the Bri- i (ish. French and American delegations Joined in a memorandum saying that! transfer of the German Shantung rights to Japan would be the more d Birable ol ih two courses suggested. Professor Williams and McClay, a brother expert, joined in a memorandum memoran-dum sayinc China ought not be compelled com-pelled to accept either alternative. "1 asked the president." said Professor Pro-fessor Williams, "whether (be pro posed settlement was not contrary to hi i fourteen points and hf said that unfortunately be did not think there was anything In the fourteen poin;s exact! covering the case Later I called attention to his .Mount Vernon address which seemed to cover the matter." "Did the president make any re-Bpohse?" re-Bpohse?" asked Senator Johnson. Republican, Re-publican, ('alifoi nla "I only received a note from the president's Secretary thanking me tor tho memorandum." Two days later Professor Williams said I- was informed ot the decision taken, adding that Dr. S. K. Hornbee!:, the other American adviser on Par Eastern affairs, had concurred in objecting ob-jecting but that they did not file a pro-j pro-j test after the decision was announce J. Asked whether his resignation "was due to any particular reason," the ,vit I ness replied : "No. My leave of absence from the - University ol California was about lo expire. I would have come home In any case." In reply to a question as to what et feet the Shantung decision might ha el in China, Professor Williams said: "I fell b would raise a strong protest pro-test ironi China and was tending to Strife rather than to peace 1 felt it I was also injurious to our own mi r t is as China had entered the war under un-der our advice and that by the trans fer of these rights lo Japan wo would lost prestige lo the Far East, "My own opinion Is that the den sion was an unfortunate one. that the leased territory of Ki to I how and -he railways and mines of Shantung r-c'inarily r-c'inarily would have gone to Chins i I the conclusion of peace; that they had been taken from ( hina by force and by an act of piracy ' I have not the slightest doubt thai Japan will carry out her promise, but the promise Is very uncertain because when Mie 99-year lease expires she retain- control of the port of Tslng-T.o so that there virtually will be nothing to bind back.11 i |