SAYS U. S. INFLUENCED CHINA

Mr. Edward Bangs Drew '63, retired senior commissioner of the Imperial Maritime Customs of China, stated his views about the recent anti-German developments in China in an interview with a CRIMSON reporter yesterday. Mr. Drew was secretary of the embassy of Li Hung Chang to the United States in 1896, and was chairman of the executive committee of the Medical School of China. He was twice decorated by the former Chinese Emperor. He is also ex-president of the Royal Asiatic Society of Shanghai and a Fellow of the Eastern Asiatic Society of Boston.

Mr. Drew showed that the influence of the United States has had great weight in causing the recent rupture of diplomatic relations between China and Germany. He said:

"Apparently the Chinese have decided to go as far as the United States in hostility to Germany. We have no knowledge that they have declared war, but it is clear that they have sent home the German ambassador. The question which concerns us most is the motive of the Chinese. Of these there are several. One motive is the desire to have a place at the peace conference, when the great questions of the war are settled. What China wants is the permission from the great powers of Europe to raise her tariff. The present Chinese import duty is calculated on a five to ten per cent basis. The government needs money badly, and although supposed to be a sovereign state, China is not allowed to raise her own tariff without the consent of the treaty powers. By joining the Allies the hopes to win their support in raising her tariff.

Boxer Indemnity Still Heavy.

"Another consideration is probably the hope that she may be relieved of her present obligation to pay Germany's share of the Boxer indemnity of 1900. The German part of the fine imposed on China was very heavy. The Boxer indemnity will not be completely paid off until 1940 and probably the Chinese government hopes to obtain a reduction from all the Entente Allies, and perhaps especially to get the German quota reduced.

"There is no doubt that earnest diplomatic persuasion has been exercised to induce China to break off relations. The United States minister has been urging the Chinese government to take this step, and one may guess that Great Britain, France and Japan have not been less urgent in the same direction.

"If China obtains a share in the peace conference later on, she may very likely hope to obtain not alone the benefits above indicated, but also the clean retrocession of the Kiao Chow Bay territory and its timberland, formerly seized by Germany and at present held by Japan.

"One may naturally ask, 'Why should the Entente Allies desire to draw China into the international maelstrom?' This is a question every intelligent man must answer in his own way. It is thought by some that Britain and France wish to engage freely a large number of Chinese laborers; this, however, they were free to do without the necessity of bringing China into the Entente group. She has no navy and her army is relatively a negligible quantity. In a word it seems easy to determine why China for her part should consent to a rupture of relations with Germany, but what advantage the Allies look for is not so patent."