We differed radically in our judgment as to the sincerity of the Japanese threat.

He showed that he believed it would be carried out.

I believed that it would not be.
It has not come to my knowledge what the attitude of the British and French statesmen was concerning the disposition of the Shantung rights, although I have read the views of certain authors on the subject, but I do know that the actual decision lay with the President.

If he had declined to recognize the Japanese claims, they would never have been granted nor would the grant have been written into the Treaty.
Everything goes to show that he realized this responsibility and that the cession to Japan was not made through error or misconception of the rights of the parties, but was done deliberately and with a full appreciation that China was being denied that which in other circumstances would have been awarded to her.

If it had not been for reasons wholly independent and outside of the question in dispute, the President would not have decided as he did.
It is not my purpose to enter into the details of the origin of the German lease of Kiao-Chau (the port of Tsingtau) and of the economic concessions in the Province of Shantung acquired by Germany.