论华盛顿会议前后的全国国民外交大会

全国国民外交大会是华盛顿会议前夕在上海成立的一个全国性的民间外交团体。起初,代表们希望通过华会取消不平等条约,实现民族的独立,但是列强和北京政府的表现让他们大失所望。众多代表逐渐认识到列强不会轻易放弃在华特权,华会的结果不过是将中国置于共同剥削的对象,而腐败的北京政府也不可能取得外交的胜利,只有改造内政,才能挽救国家的危亡。这些认识在当时舆论界具有相当的代表性,促进了有利于国民革命的社会意识的形成。

A Brief Comment on the National Conference of People-to-People Diplomacy

The National Conference of People-to-People Diplomacy founded in Shanghai at the eve of the Washington Conference was a nation-wide and non-governmental organization on diplomacy.The initiative of the representatives at this conference was to take advantage of the Washington Conference(1918) to terminate those unequal treaties that previously imposed on China,and therefore,to regain the autonomy of Chinese nation.Later,it was extremely disappointed by the manners of both Western Powers and Beijing Government at the Washington Conference.Many of the representatives gradually realized the situation: that there was no hope that the Western Powers would voluntarily give up their vested rights in China,and hence the Washington Conference would end up no other than a collective exploitation on China.Either there was no possibility for the collapsing Beijing Government to achieve success in diplomacy.Only by means of interior revolution on the government,may China be released from the crisis.This point of view was quite representative of the public opinions at that time,and contributed to the formation of social consciousness,which subsequently fuelled the National Revolution.