Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

Extended Essay – fyw899

treated as second-class citizens. Further opposition to racial equality came from Britain, with

their proxy antagonist being the leader of the young dominion, namelyWilliamMorris Hughes.

On the surface, Hughes appeared to have motives very similar to the United States. During the

debates and open forum negotiations, the US and British delegation remained quiet on racial

equality. Being seen to be racist created complications for both the US and Britain. Instead,

these great powers were pleased for Hughes to be the overt catalyst for opposing the Japanese.

Thus, Hughes was not only acting in Australia’s interests, but was also the ‘stalking horse’ for

the taciturn British and the US delegations.

Beyond the racial equality clause, the Japanese delegation also sought to secure former German

territories in the South Pacific. The former German territory of New Guinea was particularly

desired by Japan, as well as the South-eastern portion of Asia. With the mandate of New

Guinea also desired by Australia, this was a contentious point and would result in a further

deterioration of diplomatic relations between Australia and Japan.

Despite Japan’s relative diplomatic strength and the nobility of their racial equality policy, it

came as a shock to the delegation when they were humiliatingly defeated in achieving this

objective. The Japanese “delegates returned [from the conference] feeling fobbed off with

mere scraps and distinctly unwelcome at the victor’s table” as well as “no longer aspiring to be

an honorary white nation”. 8 This negative reaction the result of the Paris Peace Conference

had provoked on the Japanese as a whole, had greater consequences than anticipated. This

being Japan’s ultimate departure of the League. 9

It is therefore curious of how Hughes was able to orchestrate such a comprehensive diplomatic

defeat on the Japanese delegation. Thus, given both the racial equality issue and the territorial

8 Clements, Jonathan. 2014. Modern Japan . Hodder & Stoughton. 9 Hayes, Louis D. 2001. Japan And The Security Of Asia . Lexington Books.

6