These two factions, while they supported General Tuan, were mutually antagonistic. Mr. Liang Chi-chao is a literary man and a theorist. Long befriended by the Japanese, he doubtless believed himself to be a patriotic Chinese who was ready to use Japanese aid, but would not surrender any essential national rights. Not being a man of affairs, he may not always have seen the bearing upon the ultimate independence of China of the measures which he proposed. Some Chinese as well as foreigners thought him merely the venal instrument of Japan; others regarded him as essentially honest, but subject to being misled because of his theories. As Minister of Finance, his administration tended to bring about a great increase of Japanese influence in China.
Mr. Tsao Ju-lin, cynical, practical-minded, and keen, is a different type of man. He was closely associated with Mr. Lu Tsung-yu, himself the most pliable instrument of Japanese policy in China. Mr. Tsao was educated in Japan; one or more of his wives were Japanese, and in business and pleasure he was constantly in Japanese company. He was out-spokenly skeptical about his own country and about republican institutions.
The Government felt dependent upon assistance from abroad, for it had financial difficulties due to inherited burdens and present military expenses. It was made to believe that assistance could come only from the Japanese. The Americans had left the Consortium four years ago; they had every opportunity to interest themselves in China, but they had done nothing substantial beyond the loan of the Chicago bank. In China, the margin between tolerable existence and financial stress is so narrow that a few million dollars may wield an enormous influence for good or bad.
These needs were accentuated because the southern republicans were holding aloof. They felt themselves excluded from the Government; they doubted General Tuan's honesty of purpose, and they planned to remain independent of the central authorities. From Shanghai Mr. C.T. Wang, the most prominent of the younger republicans, wrote that Tuan Chi-jui and his cabinet represented the reactionary element; that they were strongly backed by undesirable foreign influence, and that the latter would virtually control the Government. He ascribed to General Tuan the ambition of paving the way to make himself emperor. The opposition to Tuan, he said, would continue the fight until the Chinese Republic was indeed a republic. As to American action in China, he noted that America plays the game as a gentleman, therefore it is likely to be outmanoeuvred by another country less squeamish about its methods. Another letter from Mr. C.C. Wu, dated July 19, 1917, I will give textually, in part: