Book: Betrayal in Paris

Penguin China's series of brief 100-page "Specials" covering China and World War One is a marvelous initiative; of a strong collection, Paul French's Betrayal in Paris may be the most thought-provoking to date.

The story is relatively simple: China believed, due to promises it felt it had been made as well as common sense, that the pre-War German concessions would be returned to China following Germany's defeat. Japan had however seized them and was determined to keep them which, after some sharp-elbowed diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference about the so-called "Shantung question," it managed to do.