It was only through secret interviews and secret agreements that the threat of the Japanese delegates could be successfully made.

An adjustment on such a basis had nothing to do with the justice of the case or with the legal rights and principles involved.

The threat was intended to coerce the arbiters of the treaty terms by menacing the success of the plan to establish a League of Nations--to use an ugly word, it was a species of "blackmail" not unknown to international relations in the past.

It was made possible because the sessions of the Council of the Heads of States and the conversations concerning Shantung were secret.
It was a calamity for the Republic of China and unfortunate for the presumed justice written into the Treaty that President Wilson was convinced that the Japanese delegates would decline to accept the Covenant of the League of Nations if the claims of Japan to the German rights were denied.

It was equally unfortunate that the President felt that without Japan's adherence to the Covenant the formation of the League would be endangered if not actually prevented.