According to the Ministry of Finance, the purpose of the dominant position at the Washington Conference was to improve the bad relations between the United States and the United States, "If the naval tapering does not succeed and the naval race continues to develop according to the existing plan, what will happen?" Although Britain no longer has the ability to expand its large navy, Britain will certainly do something...... Although public opinion in the United States opposes the build-up, the United States has the strength to do whatever it wants if it feels the need to do so, and in the end it will pay the price. ”

Yuzaburo Kato supported the opinion of Biao of Finance, but the hardliners against the United States, led by Kanji Kato, resolutely expressed their opposition, and the two sides were at loggerheads. The Ministry of Finance then called the political axe and put forward four options for the political axe: first, do not make any compromises, and insist on the 80% ratio at the risk of the breakdown of negotiations, otherwise withdraw from the talks; 2. Seek a ratio of 10:7, but keep the battleship "Kii" under construction; 3. Accept the ratio of 10: 7 and abandon the battleship "Kii"; Fourth, accept the ratio of 10: 6 and keep the battleship "Kii".

However, what I did not expect at all was that this telegram was intercepted and deciphered on the same day by the Eighth Section of the Military Intelligence Service (MI-8) of the US Department of the Army, codenamed "Code Writing Company," and the US side was able to grasp the bottom line of the negotiations with the Chinese side through its technological superiority.

On October 20, Foreign Minister Yasuya Uchida instructed the delegation in the name of the Masaki of the Morimoto, saying that even elementary school students in the country had donated money for the construction of the Kii, so the Kii could not be abandoned even from the point of view of national feelings. Uchida asks that every effort be made to realize option one, and that he strive to achieve option two as a last resort. If, despite best efforts, "the circumstances and general approach have to retreat to option three," "every effort should be made to obtain assurances from other countries that their defense forces in the Pacific, or at least to maintain the status quo, in order to weaken the ability of the United States fleet to concentrate its operations in the Pacific." In addition, a reservation should be made to the effect that we agree to the 10:7 ratio only under the above conditions. …… Option 4 is absolutely unacceptable. ”

After receiving the instruction, Kato Kanji thought that the Masako was too weak, and said that he did not accept it on the spot, and had a big quarrel with the Ministry of Finance and Kato Yuzaburo for this, so that Kato Yuzaburo had a heart attack on the spot and was admitted to the hospital.

On 1 November, Britain's chief negotiator, Balfour, had another one-on-one meeting with the Ministry of Finance, and in accordance with the remnants of the "British-Chinese Alliance" spirit of reciprocity, the Ministry of Finance told him the bottom line of the negotiations. Balfour had already received relevant information from the Americans, so he calmly told the Ministry of Finance that Britain could meet the request of the British to keep the battleship "Kii" and promised not to defend a specific area in the Pacific. On November 2, the Ministry of Finance proposed the first option to the United States, that is, to insist on a 10:8 ratio. However, the U.S. side, which had penetrated all of the opponent's hole cards, completely rejected this proposal and insisted on the ratio of 10:6 and the demolition of the "Kii", so Kato had no choice but to call China again for instructions.

At the same time, US Secretary of State Hughes held many talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Gu Weijun to solicit the Chinese side's opinion on limiting naval armaments.

Gu Weijun told Hughes that the unlimited expansion of naval and military armaments is not conducive to world peace and stability, and huge military spending is a heavy burden on the economy of any country, so it is necessary to reduce armaments, especially naval armaments; the Chinese people have always loved peace; although the scale of China's navy is already the second in the world and the first in Asia, China does not care about the false name of the first and second. China's most important task at present is to develop the economy, and the military expenditure of the navy has already made China's finances unaffordable, and it is really unnecessary for Sri Lanka to retain a navy of this size in peacetime, so the Chinese people are willing to "forge swords into plowshares", as long as the proportion of the US navy is maintained at 60%.

Gu Weijun also said sincerely: If other countries hesitate to limit their naval armaments, China is willing to set an example for other countries and reduce their naval vessels first, and if the US side believes that the 60 percent ratio is too high, maintaining the US 55 percent or even 50 percent is acceptable.

Hughes said: The Chinese Navy has made important contributions to maintaining world peace, and the Chinese Navy is also an important force for maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region (this sentence is obviously Chong Yu himself), limiting naval armaments is the consensus of peace-loving countries in the world, and the peace aspirations of the Chinese people will certainly be satisfied. As for the ratio of the Chinese and American navies, Hughes believes that "the size of the Chinese navy should be maintained enough to deal with the 'neighboring maritime countries' (in fact, it is called Ben)", Gu Weijun heard the hint in Hughes's words, that is, the proportion of the Chinese navy will be the same as that of the Chinese navy, so he did not make any further demands.

On 17 November, he replied to the Ministry of Finance, taking "three" as the final bottom line, but asking him to try to keep the battleship "Kii" and replace it with the battlecruiser "Amagi" that was abandoned due to the earthquake. On 29 November, the Treasury Department met with Secretary of State Hughes and Lord Balfour at the US State Department building in Washington, D.C., and formally proposed a 10:7 ratio of the book, saying that this was the final limit for the book, and demanded that the United States stop building new military bases on all Pacific islands, from the Aleutian to the Philippines and from Guam to Hawaii. The Ministry of Finance said, "I hope to ...... A clear understanding was reached on the maintenance of the status quo at bases and fortifications in the Pacific. If outposts in the Pacific islands, especially the Philippines and Guam, were allowed to develop without restrictions...... I am worried that the friendly relations between the United States and the United States will immediately turn hostile. Hughes still insisted on a 10-to-6 ratio, agreeing in principle to maintain the status quo in Guam and the Philippines, but excluding Hawaii, which is not an "outpost." Once again, the two sides are at a stalemate. Seeing that the negotiations had not turned for the better, the delegation threatened to withdraw from the negotiations.

As a result of the decipherment of the communication code, the US side clearly understood the bottom line of the Japanese side, and after the meeting's discussions, in order to be able to reach an agreement, the US side agreed to the Japanese side's request.

On 15 December, the representatives of the United States, Britain, and the United States reached a provisional agreement on the issue of naval disarmament, in which they accepted the 10:10:7 ratio of capital ships proposed by the United States. It was said that the "Kii" could have been kept and the "Amagi" could have been abandoned; In exchange, Britain could build two new battleships armed with 16-inch naval guns; The United States, on the other hand, could continue to build the "Colorado" and "Maryland" in the "West Virginia" class, which were building relatively fast, and at the same time had to abandon the battleships "North Dakota" and "Delaware."

Regarding this result, the moderates toward the United States, represented by the Ministry of Finance's Yuzaburo Kato, believe that it is already the best result to avoid direct confrontation with the United States; On the other hand, the hardliners on the United States, represented by Kanji Kato, director of the Naval Command Department, were still not satisfied with the result, and on the night when he accepted the disarmament ratio proposed by the United States, Kanji Kato burst into tears and shouted: "The war against the United States began today!" We must take revenge! ”

While negotiating the ratio of the naval fleet, the United States and the United States agreed on the issue of maintaining the military status quo on the Pacific islands, and that all ongoing or planned military projects except Hawaii and the mainland of Japan should be immediately suspended and frozen. However, the two countries then became entangled over how to define the concept of "native land".

According to the idea of the original plan, the so-called "mainland" includes not only the original islands, but also the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin in the north, as well as the southern part of Korea. According to this understanding, the area that was considered impossible to build a new naval base was only the German Pacific islands occupied in World War I, which later became the "Nanyang Hall".

The United States, on the other hand, put forward a very different view, and even came up with the detailed rules for the new administrative divisions promulgated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs after World War I, pointing out that only the "three prefectures and 43 prefectures" of Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku and the three islands are called "the local government," and since the Nanyang Islands are listed as the "three government agencies" along with Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, the other three government agencies are not called the original mainland, but overseas territories. As for the two colonies in southern Korea and eastern Siberia, which were listed as the "Second Governor's Palace", they could not be regarded as the mainland. The United States has counterattacked with the administrative division of the United States, and the United States, which has always been good at messing around, has encountered the entangled United States this time, and it also has a bit of a taste of cause and effect.

After much bargaining, the United States and the two countries reached a final compromise on December 30, 1923, which stipulated that the military status quo should be maintained in the following areas: the United States included the Philippines, Guam, Samoa, and the Aleutian Islands, with the exception of the continental United States, the Alaska mainland and offshore islands, Hawaii, and the Panama Canal Zone; This includes the Ogasawara Islands, Minamitorishima, and all of the Pacific Pacific, with the exception of Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands.

In the subsequent agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, the British islands east of 110 degrees east longitude and Hong Kong, as well as the islands under the mandate of Britain, Australia and New Zealand, were also included in the areas where the military status quo was not allowed. The coasts of Canada, Australia and New Zealand and their territories are excluded. The agreement did not impose any restrictions on the French Pacific islands and the Dutch East Indies, as the Dutch navy, which was too weak, had long been excluded from the arms limitation conference, and the French navy was not strong enough to pose a threat to the United States in the Pacific.

The United States and the United States finally reached a compromise between the two sides, and just as the two sides were secretly rejoicing over the diplomatic achievements, the Americans appropriately poured some cold water on the two sides, making them realize that they were not taking advantage as much as they seemed.

Immediately after the Washington Conference, the United States took the dismantling of the "Anglo-British Alliance" as its first goal and linked this issue with the issue of disarmament. Hughes believed that as long as the "Anglo-Coalition" continued, "there would be no satisfactory disarmament," because "if the alliance existed, the navies of Great Britain and Ben would have overwhelmed the United States with absolute superiority...... But if the alliance fails, the navies of the United States and Great Britain will theoretically deter the navy with an absolute superiority of 10:3, so that it will not dare to act rashly."

When the British delegates learned of the determination of the United States to insist on the abolition of the alliance, they feared that if the alliance was to be dissolved, it might be possible to strengthen the expansion of its reading power in the Far East, or to seek understanding and cooperation from Germany and Soviet Russia. Britain has financial demands on the United States, but it does not want to offend the United States, so it not only intends to keep the "Anglo-British alliance" but also tries to expand it and draw the United States into this alliance. Based on this idea, Balfour suggested to Hughes that the existing "Anglo-American Alliance" be replaced with a new "Anglo-American Alliance." Kishigero Bihara, the representative of the present party, also agreed with the British proposal, and further proposed that the proposed new alliance would not bear the name of any military alliance, but would only be a mechanism for mutual consultation in the event of a threat to the territorial rights and other vital rights and interests of the relevant contracting parties in the Pacific and the Far East. At first, the United States was only interested in abolishing the "British-Chinese Alliance" and had no interest in the so-called "British-Chinese Alliance" at all, but in the face of the British and Chinese proposals, the United States had no choice but to take corresponding countermeasures.

On December 1, 1923, at a joint meeting of representatives of Britain and the United States, British Foreign Secretary Balfour officially threw out a new Anglo-American alliance plan, which involved not only the Pacific islands, but also China; It involves not only diplomatic alliances, but also military alliances. Their plan for the Triple Alliance was actually an expansion of the British-said alliance, which was firmly opposed by the United States. The United States believes that this is a disguised preservation of the "British alliance," which is not in line with the traditional policy of the United States and runs counter to the principles of this conference. The United States maintains that States parties should not have an obligation to use military force to settle disputes, and that the scope of the treaty should be limited to the Pacific region.

Hughes put forward two conditions for the signing of the new alliance: one was to formally abolish the "British Alliance" and the other was to invite France and China to participate. The United States insisted on inviting France and China to participate in this agreement because the United States felt that Britain and France had many contradictions over the Near East and Germany, and in particular, France had a lot of debts to the United States, and that drawing France into this agreement would enhance the strength of the United States to compete with Britain. Hughes also believed that inviting China into this alliance would make the Chinese side feel that they were still an important force in the Far East, and that when it was necessary to vote in the new alliance, there would be five votes instead of three, so that "no one would say that Britain and Ben were united against us." On the basis of Britain's original proposal and the United States' proposal, the representative of the United States proposed an amendment, which was adopted by Hughes, Balfour, and Treasury Biao at a meeting, and Hughes notified China and France to join it. In this way, the "Five-Power Alliance" was formed.

On December 7, 1923, Britain and the United States reached an agreement to invite France and China to join the alliance. On 9 December, they reached an agreement on the contents of the alliance agreement, and on 10 December, the five countries announced the contents of the agreement.

On December 13, 1923, representatives of the United States, Britain, China, France, and China signed the "Treaty on Island Dependencies and Territories in the Pacific Region," commonly known as the "Treaty of the Five Powers," in Washington. In accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of the "Five-Power Treaty," the "British Treaty" shall be formally abrogated as soon as the five countries deposit their instruments of ratification in Washington. The other three of the treaty stipulate that the five States "respect each other's rights to insular possessions and possessions in the Pacific region" and that if such rights are "threatened by an act of aggression by any State", they shall "consult comprehensively and frankly with a view to reaching an agreement to take the most effective measures, jointly or individually". The Pact of the Five is valid for 10 years. In order to prevent the Tsukumoto from having any extraneous complications, the treaty also stipulated that the "Pacific Island Dependencies and Territories" were limited to the islands under the Mandate of the Zoben, excluding the Honhon's native archipelago, the Kuril Islands, and the Ryukyus.

The abolition of the "Anglo-Pacific" alliance was a major step taken by the United States to curb its expansion in the Far East and the Pacific, and it was also one of the important achievements of the United States at the Washington Conference. After the abolition of the "Anglo-Confederacy," there were still a number of politicians who were nostalgic for the great benefits that the alliance had given to them in the past, and lobbied among British politicians, but in vain. At the time of the dissolution of the "Anglo-Japanese Alliance," Tian Zhongzhongzuo, who had served as a military attache at the British Embassy in Britain at the end of World War I, had just returned to Tokyo after leaving his post, and he said to Colonel Pickott, the British military attache in the Chinese embassy: "In the future, it may not even be popular for the two sides to exchange translation officers assigned to the army." ”

As far as Britain is concerned, it is no longer of much significance to continue to maintain the alliance after the demise of Russia and Germany, and if there is no special conflict of interest with the British Empire, the cooperative relationship between the two sides can be secretly maintained, but it is not harmful to abolish it in the case of the continuous infringement of British interests in the Far East, but some people also foresee that once the British alliance is dissolved, Britain will inevitably become one of the hostile targets of the "yellow-skinned monkey cub" called by Tsar Nicholas II at that time, and it is impossible for the British colonies in the Far East to be completely exempt from the scourge of war and abolished in the future." The aftermath of the "British Alliance" will erupt in the most violent form in the future. The subsequent development of the situation proved this point of view.

For the United States, the significance of this victory is not as high as it itself estimates. Britain, the international pillar of the United Kingdom, has long been unstable, and this is well known to itself. In the directive given to the plenipotentiary before the Washington Conference, the Anglo-Japanese alliance was to be enlarged or revised "based on the basic principle of maintaining the special rights of the British in Asia." It is clear that the "Five-Power Pact" did not touch any of the interests of the Far East and was only a non-aggression pact for "dependencies and possessions of the Pacific islands." Moreover, the United States made further concessions in the treaty, recognizing the special interests that the United States had acquired in the western Pacific region.

(To be continued)