World War I, The Far East

China's entry into the war in 1917 on the side of the Allies was motivated not by any grievance against the Central Powers but by the Peking government's fear lest Japan, a belligerent since 1914, should monopolize the sympathies of the Allies and of the United States when Far Eastern affairs came up for settlement after the war. Accordingly, in March 1917 the Peking government severed