Wilson To Recognize Chinese Republic.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 20, 1913:
That Is the Next Step This Country Will Take to Show Its Unselfish Attitude.
LOAN ACTION STIRS EUROPE
Germany Isolated by Our Withdrawal — J. R. Mott Refuses the Offer of the Chinese Embassy.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, March 19.— Yesterday's announcement of President Wilson that the United States Government would not continue as a member of the six-power group formed to negotiate a large loan to the Chinese Republic is only the first step in what appears to be a comprehensive programme already arranged for the future relations of this country and China.
    The next step will be the formal recognition of the new republic. With that as an earnest of the benevolent and friendly interest of the United States in the Flowery Land under a republican form of government the Wilson Administration will endeavor to pursue an independent course in dealing with China and seek particularly to obtain mutual trade advantages and concessions directly from the Government at Pekin without acting in co-operation with other powers.
    In line with the views of the President and his advisers on this important departure from past policy, President Wilson has offered the post of Minister to China to John R. Mott of Montclan, N.J., probably the best known YMCA worker in the world who is Foreign Secretary of the International Committee of that organization. Mr. Mott has declined the offer but whether his answer is final has not been definitely ascertained, although the best information obtainable is that he gave a positive if reluctant refusal. Mr. Mott was proposed and urged for the Peking post by clergymen all over the country, particularly those interested in foreign missionary work, and by the Presbyterian clergy.

A Full-Fledged Nation.
    It is apparent, from the withdrawal of the United States from the six-power group from the evident intention to recognize the Chinese Republic shown in President Wilson's statement and from the effort of President Wilson to obtain a religious worker as the American diplomatic representative at Peking that the Wilson Administration intends to treat China as a full-fledged nation capable of conducting her own affairs and to make the new republic realize that the only purposes of the United States are benevolent and unselfish and based on the foundation of a true Christian spirit. How far this application of the Golden Rule in relations between this Government and China will bring about the results desired is something that can only be determined by a trial. It will please certain powers which do not believe that benevolent treatment of China by any nation will work to that nations advantage.
    Press dispatches from Berlin reporting the feeling aroused in Government circles there over the withdrawal of the United States from the six-power loan group cause no surprise in Washington. It was at Germany's initiative that Secretary of State Knox proposed concerted action between the powers in supervising the Chinese Republic s efforts to borrow money. There is a suspicion here, however, based on reports current for a year that the United States Government was only too anxious to meet Germany half way in the suggestion that there should be co-operation among the great nations concerned in connection with the arrangement of China's financial affairs.
    Russia and France on the one hand and Great Britain and Japan on the other had been acting together in matters affecting China, Germany virtually stood alone. When the United States obtained co-operation among the powers, apparently at Germany's suggestion this Government became an important factor in everything that related to industrial enterprise and financial dealing in China, and Germany found a friend upon whom to lean should occasion demand. With the withdrawal of the United States from the six-power group Germany is left without an associate in the international concert. Naturally Germany feels that she has been badly treated by the action of the Wilson Administration.

Fear Our Influence May Wane.
    To what extent the refusal of this Government to continue longer as a party to the international loan arrangement will affect the ability of the United States to play a major part in Chinese affairs has not been determined to the satisfaction of some Washington observers of Far Eastern conditions. It was recalled here to-day that Jonn Hay's note of July 3, 1900, calling on the nations having interests in China, to act in co-operation in everything that affected the international relations of the kingdom had given this Government a voice in the adjustment of China's troubles that had not only worked to American advantage but, in the opinion of men who have followed the Chinese situation closely, had preserved the territorial and political entity of that country.
    The fear was expressed here to-day that the policy of the Wilson Administration, foreshadowed in yesterday's statement by the President, meant a complete withdrawal from all co-operation with other powers in connection with China. The Hay policy that grave this Government an equal voice with Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia, and France in practically everything that affected China's international dealings, has been adhered to until this day, and there is some apprehension here that, with the United States pursuing an independent course, other nations may decide that the time has come to carry out designs that will sidetrack American enterprise as far as obtaining valuable concessions and extending trade in China is concerned.
    Many men interested in Chinese affairs have contended that the course of John Hay in 1900, which gave this Government a leading part in the determination of China's future, had been responsible for preventing the dismemberment of the Flowery Kingdom. Whether President Wilson's new policy embraces the withdrawal of the United States from active participation in international moves affecting China is something that such men are anxious to know. It has been contended that if this Government did so its influence in the determination of China's destiny would become null and void. Out of the possibilities of that contention grows the anxiety felt in certain quarters here since the publication of President Wilson's explanatory statement concerning the refusal of this Government to continue as a party to the six power group loan.