'"
Japan's spheres of influence have been subsequently extended to cover
the whole of Manchuria and the whole of Shantung--though the latter has
been nominally renounced at Washington. By such methods as the above, or
by loans to impecunious Chinese authorities, the Japanese have acquired
vast railway monopolies wherever their influence has penetrated, and
have used the railways as a means of acquiring all real power in the
provinces through which they run.
After the Russo-Japanese war, Russia and Japan became firm friends, and
agreed to bring pressure on China jointly in any matter affecting
Manchuria. Their friendship lasted until the Bolshevik revolution.
Russia had entered into extensive obligations to support Japan's claims
at the Peace Conference, which of course the Bolsheviks repudiated.
Hence the implacable hostility of Japan to Soviet Russia, leading to the
support of innumerable White filibusters in the territory of the Far
Eastern Republic, and to friendship with France in all international
questions. As soon as there began to be in China a revolutionary party
aiming at the overthrow of the Manchus, the Japanese supported it. They
have continuously supported either or both sides in Chinese dissensions,
as they judged most useful for prolonging civil war and weakening China
politically. Before the revolution of 1911, Sun Yat Sen was several
times in Japan, and there is evidence that as early as 1900 he was
obtaining financial support from some Japanese.
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