Koo Vi Kyuin (; January 29, 1888 – November 14, 1985), better known as V. K. Wellington Koo, was a statesman of the Republic of China. He was one of
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
's representatives at the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.
Wellington Koo served as an ambassador to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
; was a participant in the founding of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
and the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
; and sat as a judge on the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
from 1957 to 1967. Between October 1926 and June 1927, while serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Koo briefly held the concurrent positions of acting
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
and interim
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
of the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
.
[ Koo was the first Chinese head of state known to use a Western name publicly.
]
Early life and career (1888–1912)
Born in Kating (Jiading), now a suburb of Shanghai, in 1888. Koo grew up in an upper-class cosmopolitan family and was fluent in both English and French, which greatly aided his diplomatic career. In 1895, he was greatly affected by China's defeat at the hands of Japan, which led to the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki
The , also known as the Treaty of Maguan () in China and in the period before and during World War II in Japan, was a treaty signed at the , Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China, ending the Firs ...
. Koo later wrote: "Ever since I was seven years old, when I heard with depressed heart the news of China's defeat by Japan, I had desired to work for China's recovery and the removal of the Japanese menace". Koo's father resolved to give him a "modern" education to help him prepare for the coming 20th century and to work for China's modernization. The naval battles during the recent war where the modern British-built warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy had blown out of the water the antiquated junks of the Imperial Chinese Navy had dramatically shown that modern, industrial powers had the advantage over backward nations. In 1897, Germany occupied the Shangdong Province after a short campaign, which again showed to the young Koo that as long as China was backward, it would be bullied by stronger powers.
At the age of 11, Koo was sent to be educated at the Anglo-Chinese Junior College in Shanghai, where he was taught in English various subjects such as modern science and geography, though his studies were cut short when he contracted typhoid fever. While at the college, Koo once rode a bicycle down the streets of Shanghai into the International Settlement and followed an English boy also riding a bicycle onto the sidewalk, where an Indian policeman allowed the English boy to continue while stopping Koo to give him a fine for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk. Koo was shocked to discover that owing to extraterritoriality, the laws and rules that applied to Chinese in China did not apply to British subjects-in this instance laws prohibiting riding a bicycle on the sidewalk-and that a foreign policeman had power over the Chinese police. Koo was left with a lifelong desire to end the status of extraterritoriality that had been imposed by the 19th century "Unequal treaties".
Koo studied at Saint John's University, Shanghai
St. John's University (SJU) was a Christian university in Shanghai. Founded in 1879 by American missionaries, it was one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China, often regarded as the Harvard of China.
After the founding of the ...
from 1901 to 1904, and Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where he was a member of the Philolexian Society
The Philolexian Society of Columbia University is one of the oldest college literary and debate societies in the United States, and the oldest student group at Columbia. Founded in 1802, the Society aims to "improve its members in Oratory, Compo ...
, a literary and debating club, and graduated with a BA in Liberal Arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
(1908) and an MA in Political Science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
(1909). In 1912 he received his PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in international law and diplomacy from Columbia.[
]
Return to Peking
Koo returned to Peking in 1912. He served the Republic of China as English Secretary to President Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912, later becoming the Emperor of China. H ...
. In 1915, Koo was made Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
's Minister to the United States and Cuba.
At the Paris Peace Conference
In 1919, he was a member of the Chinese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, led by Foreign Minister Lou Tseng-Tsiang
Lou Tseng-Tsiang (; 12 June 1871 - 15 January 1949) was a Chinese diplomat and a Roman Catholic priest and monk. He was twice Premier of the Republic of China and led his country's delegation at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. He sometimes u ...
. In 1897, China had been forced to sign a treaty that gave a 99-year lease giving sovereignty over the city of Qingdao to Germany while also giving Germany various special rights and economic control over the Shandong peninsula. Qingdao became the principle German naval base in Asia. In 1914, Japan entered World War I on the Allied side and seized Qingdao after a siege. The Japanese made it very clear that they wished to take over the German rights in Shandong province
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...
by right of conquest, a demand that the Chinese vehemently rejected. In January 1915, Japan presented the 21 Demands
The Twenty-One Demands ( ja, 対華21ヶ条要求, Taika Nijūikkajō Yōkyū; ) was a set of demands made during the First World War by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to the government of the Republic of China on 18 ...
that if accepted would had turned China into a virtual Japanese protectorate, warning in a note presented to the Chinese that Japan would take "vigorous methods" if the 21 Demands were rejected. Following protests from the United States that the 21 Demands would negate the Open Door policy towards trade with China, the Japanese dropped the more extreme of the 21 Demands. On 25 May 1915, the Japanese forced the Chinese to agree that after the war ended, the Japanese would take over all of the German rights in the Shandong, which caused protests all over China over what was deemed "National Humiliation Day".
As an young diplomat, Koo was strongly opposed to the acceptance of the Japanese demands. Koo had become close to President Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
, whom invited him to visit the White House, where he was given to understand that the United States would support China's demands regarding the Shandong against Japan at the Paris peace conference. Wilson asked for Koo to attend the peace conference in Paris, and moreover Koo travelled on the same ship that took Wilson and the rest of the American delegation to France in December 1918. The Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan wrote: "Koo, who was only thirty-two in 1919, was a forceful and distinguished personality...At Columbia University, in New York, where he earned an undergraduate and graduate degree, he had been an outstanding student...He had also been on the university debating team, as the Japanese delegates would learn to their cost".
The Chinese delegation stayed at the Hotel Lutétia, through the Australian journalist George Ernest Morrison
George Ernest Morrison (4 February 1862 – 30 May 1920) was an Australian journalist, political adviser to and representative of the government of the Republic of China during the First World War and owner of the then largest Asiatic library ...
who also served with the Chinese delegation stayed at the MacMahon Palais. On 22 January 1919, Alfred Sao-ke Sze
Alfred Sao-ke Sze (; 1877–1958) was a prominent Chinese politician and diplomat during the most turbulent period in modern Chinese history.
Early life
Sze was born on April 10, 1877. In 1892, Sze moved to Washington, D.C. with his father, who ...
of the Chinese delegation arranged for a dinner attended by Koo where Ronald Macleay of the British delegation frankly told that Britain "could not do much" in the matter of the Shandong. During the First World War, hundreds of thousands of Chinese coolies went to France where they dug the trenches for both the British and French armies, often under German fire. Koo argued very forcefully that through no Chinese troops had fought in Europe, the sacrifices of the Chinese coolies who dug the trenches amid appalling conditions on the Western Front entitled China to be treated as one of the powers that made an important contribution to the Allied victory. When Macleay suggested that Britain would probably favor the Japanese claims on the Shandong Peninsula
The Shandong (Shantung) Peninsula or Jiaodong (Chiaotung) Peninsula is a peninsula in Shandong Province in eastern China, between the Bohai Sea to the north and the Yellow Sea to the south. The latter name refers to the east and Jiaozhou.
G ...
because Japan had done more for the Allied victory than China, Koo countered him with saying that besides for expelling the Germans from the Shandong in 1914 that Japan had done nothing for the Allied cause while Chinese coolies had dug the trenches from the fall of 1914 onward until the end of the war in 1918.
Before the Western powers and Japan, he demanded that Japan return Shandong to China. On 27 January 1919, the peace conference turned towards Asia. Makino Nobuaki
Count was a Japanese politician and imperial court official. As Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan, Makino served as Emperor Hirohito’s chief counselor on the monarch’s position in Japanese society and policymaking. In this capacity, he ...
of the Japanese delegation tried to lump in Shandong with the Marshall islands, Carolina islands and the Mariana Islands, which the Allies had already agreed would go to Japan. However, it was decided to sever Shandong from the Pacific islands. The next day, Lou disappeared and Koo took charge of the Chinese delegation. At the Quai d'Orsay, Makino gave a speech making Japan's case for the Shandong that made a poor impression owning to his haltering delivery with Wilson commenting afterwards that it had been "painful" to listen to Makino's speech.
On the morning of 29 January 1919, Koo gave a rebuttal speech in English that MacMillan described as "...a dazzling speech replete with learning references to international law and Latin tugs". Koo argued that under international law that treaties signed under threats of violence were invalid, and as such the Sino-Japanese treaty of 25 May 1915 was invalid as China had signed under duress as Japan was threatening war if its terms were not met. He further stated that the original Sino-German treaty of 1897 was also invalid as Germany was threatening war unless the ''Reich'' was granted special rights in the Shandong. Koo stated that all the people of China were grateful to the Japanese for ending the harsh German rule over the Shandong in 1914, but noted: "But grateful as they are, the Chinese delegation felt that they would be false in their duty to China and to the world if they did not object to paying their debts of gratitude by selling the birthright of their countrymen and thereby sowing the seeds of discord in the future". Koo noted that under Wilson's 14 Points, the basis of the peace was to be national self-determination, which led him to argue that Japan had no right to the Shandong as its people were overwhelmingly Han and wanted to be part of China. Koo stated that the Shandong "was the cradle of Chinese civilization, the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius and a Holy Land for the Chinese". The French Premier Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...
praised Koo for his eloquent speech. The American secretary of state, Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing (; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wils ...
, wrote that Koo had crushed the Japanese with his speech. The Canadian prime minister, Sir Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I.
Borde ...
, called Koo's speech "very able".
Clemenceau described Koo as "an young Chinese cat, Parisian of speech and dress, absorbed in the pleasures of patting and pawing the mouse, even if it was reserved for the Japanese". Through mostly at odds with the Japanese delegation, Koo supported and voted for the Japanese-sponsored Racial Equality Proposal
The was an amendment to the Treaty of Versailles that was considered at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Proposed by Japan, it was never intended to have any universal implications, but one was attached to it anyway, which caused its controversy. ...
. On 12 April 1919, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...
bluntly asked Koo: "Which would China prefer-to allow Japan to succeed to the German rights in Shandong as stated in the treaty between China and Germany or to recognize Japan's position in Shandong as stipulated in the treaties between China and Japan?" Koo replied in English: "Both alternatives are unacceptable". Koo seized upon the 14 Points, which stated that secret treaties were invalid, to argue that the secret treaties in 1917 under which Great Britain, France and Italy all agreed to support Japan taking over the German rights in the Shandong peninsula, were invalid. Koo was greatly hurt when Lloyd George casually told him that China had made only the most "minimal" contributions to the Allied cause as he dismissed the work of the Chinese coolies in digging the trenches on the Western Front as unimportant. Lloyd George finally dismissed Koo's concerns about the 21 Demands under the grounds that he never heard of the 21 Demands. On 22 April 1919, in what Koo always saw as a betrayal, Wilson-whom he had invested such hopes in-came out in support of Japanese claims on the Shandong as he stated that "the war had been fought largely for the purpose of showing that treaties cannot be violated" and it was "better to live up to a bad treaty than tear it up" as he argued that China was bound by the 1915 treaty.
Koo's forceful advocacy of the Chinese case made him internationally famous while his status as a widower whose wife had just died of the "Spanish flu" conveniently ensured that he was free to marry again. The Oei family, a wealthy ''huaren'' (ethnic Chinese) family from the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia), had decided that Koo should marry Oei Hui-lan
Oei Hui-lan (; 2 December 1889 – 1992), known as Madame Wellington Koo, was a Chinese-Indonesian international socialite and style icon, and, from late 1926 until 1927, the First Lady of the Republic of China. She was married firstly to Bri ...
. During the last months of the Paris peace conference, Koo was often seen with Oei at dinners and social receptions. Koo's romance with Oei, whom he showered with flowers and gifts, distracted from his work at the conference. Oei complained in her memoirs that Koo spent his days pursuing her instead of engaging in his "important work as the second Chinese delegate".
On 4 May 1919, it was decided that the former German rights in the Shandong province would go to Japan, sparking the May Fourth Movement in China as hundreds of thousands of Chinese university students demonstrated against the decision. Koo found himself bombarded with telegrams from Chinese university students asking him not to sign the Treaty of Versailles if it meant ceding the Shandong, at one point receiving 7, 000 such telegrams in a single day. Koo also called for an end to imperialist institutions such as extraterritoriality, tariff controls, legation guards, and lease holds. The Western powers refused his claims and, consequently, the Chinese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference was the only nation that did not sign the Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
at the signing ceremony. Initially, Koo had planned to sign the Treaty of Versailles as long he could insert reservations stating his government was opposed to the Japanese gaining the German rights in the Shandong. Clemenceau however told Koo that this procedure was unacceptable and that the Chinese could either sign the Treaty of Versailles or not sign. Koo was keen to have China be one of the founding members of the League of Nations, which would signify its desire to be treated as an equal by the other nations of the world. The possibility of not signing the Treaty of Versailles and being excluded from the League was major concerns for him. Koo discovered a loophole in that the Treaty of St. Germain also included the Covent of the League of Nations in its first section. In this way, Koo could avoided signing the Treaty of Versailles while he signed the Treaty of St. Germain, which made China automatically a member of the League of Nations.
Koo and Oei remained in Paris after the conference ended, and at an especially sumptuous ball attended by the elite of Paris society announced in French their engagement on 10 October 1919. By this time, many had assumed that Koo was already married to Oei as the fact that Koo's first wife had died in January of that year was not well known.
Political career
Koo also was involved in the formation of the League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
as China's first representative to the newly formed League. In 1921, Koo became the Chinese minister to Britain. Much to his displeasure, ''Punch'' published a ballad that "welcomed" Koo to London that read: "'Morality, heavenly link'/I'm sure you will never taboo,/Through to it, I don't think you'll 'eternally drink'/Temperate Wellington Koo/It is rather malicious, I own/To play with a name that is true/But I hope you'll condone my irreverent tone/Generous Wellington Koo". The implication of the ballad that Koo was a not a diplomat representing China who was worthy of respect, but rather just a foreigner with a "funny" name who existed to amuse the British greatly offended him. To make up for the slight, King George V invited Koo and his glamorous young wife, Hui-lan Oei, as the guests of honor at a reception at Buckingham Palace for the visiting King Albert I of Belgium
Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934.
Born in Brussels as the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-S ...
. At the reception, the fluently English-speaking and youngish couple made a great impression on the high society of London.
In October 1921, Koo was reassigned as the Chinese minister in Washington. Koo was to represent China at the Washington conference, hence his sudden reassignment to Washington just after his arrival in London. Koo's principle opponent at the Washington conference was Kijūrō Shidehara
Baron was a pre–World War II Japanese diplomat and politician. He was Prime Minister of Japan from 1945 to 1946 and a leading proponent of pacifism in Japan before and after World War II. He was the last Japanese Prime Minister who was a m ...
, the Japanese ambassador in Washington. The Washington conference proved to be Koo's triumph as the conference ended with Japan renouncing its claims to the Shandong and the attending powers all signing the Nine-Power Treaty
The Nine-Power Treaty (Japanese: or Nine-Power Agreement () was a 1922 treaty affirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of China as per the Open Door Policy. The Nine-Power Treaty was signed on 6 February 1922 by all of ...
affirming the independence of China. After the conference, Koo returned to China a national hero.
From 1922, Koo served successively as Foreign Minister and Finance Minister. On 15 May 1924, he was the target of assassination attempt when a ornate gift package arrived at his house addressed to him, which Koo's servants opened instead. Upon opening the package, a bomb exploded, killing one of the servants while another two were badly wounded by the blast. The man who sent the package fled to Japan, which Koo to conclude that the Japanese were behind the attempt on his life. Later that month, Koo signed a treaty with the Soviet Union under which the Soviet Union renounced all "Unequal treaties" that China had signed with Imperial Russia in exchange for which Koo recognized the ''de facto'' independence of Outer Mongolia, which until then he had claimed as part of China. Koo opened up talks with the British for the return of the British colony of Weihaiwei
Weihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport in easternmost Shandong province. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow Sea to the east, and is the closest Chinese city to South Korea.
Weihai's popula ...
, which the British had signed a 25-year lease on in 1898, which led Koo to argue as 1923 had already passed, the lease had expired. There was much spirited disagreements as the British were unwilling to consider returning the colony, despite the fact the 25-year lease had expired in 1923.
The talks were broken off when the warlord General Feng Yuxiang
Feng Yuxiang (; ; 6 November 1882 – 1 September 1948), courtesy name Huanzhang (焕章), was a warlord and a leader of the Republic of China from Chaohu, Anhui. He served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1930. He was ...
, aka "the Christian General" seized Beijing, forcing Koo to flee for his life. Much to Koo's own humiliation, he was forced to take refuge in Weihaiwei. The British authorities in Weihaiwei refused Feng's demand to hand over Koo to his men, who would almost certainly had executed him. Feng's rule over Beijing did not last long as the capital was soon taken by the army of another warlord, Marshal Zhang Zuolin
Zhang Zuolin (; March 19, 1875 June 4, 1928), courtesy name Yuting (雨亭), nicknamed Zhang Laogang (張老疙瘩), was an influential Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord during the Warlord Era in China. The warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to ...
, the "Old Marshal" of Manchuria. With Beijing in the hands of Zhang, Koo returned to the city. Koo disliked Zhang, an illiterate bandit turned warlord who professed to be fighting to restore the "Great Qing Empire", but was willing to work with him as Zhang favored diplomacy to revise the "Unequal treaties" instead of war, a choice of options that coincided with Koo's own preferences. Zhang had a reputation as one of China's most brutal warlords, but his inability to read and write led him to crave the approval of intellectuals. Zhang appointed Koo as his premier and foreign minister, hoping this would add luster to his regime and would lead to foreign governments recognizing his government. Ominously, for Zhang, the British refused to recognize his government and dropped hints that they favored the rival government based in Canton led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
He was twice Acting Premier, in 1924 and again in 1926 during a period of chaos in Beijing under Chang Tso-lin
Zhang Zuolin (; March 19, 1875 June 4, 1928), courtesy name Yuting (雨亭), nicknamed Zhang Laogang (張老疙瘩), was an influential Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord during the Warlord Era in China. The warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to ...
in 1926-7. Koo was Acting Premier from 1 October 1926 and acted concurrently as Interim President. (On March 12, 1925, Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
died in Wellington Koo's home in Beijing, where he had been taken when it was discovered he had incurable liver cancer.) As Foreign Minister, he often clashed with Sir Miles Lampson
Miles Wedderburn Lampson, 1st Baron Killearn, (24 August 1880 – 18 September 1964) was a British diplomat.
Background and education
Miles Lampson was the son of Norman Lampson, and grandson of Sir Curtis Lampson, 1st Baronet. His mother ...
, the British minister-plenipotentiary in Beijing over his demands that China have the right to control its own tariffs and the end of British extraterritoriality, demands that Lampson vehemently rejected. Lampson had essentially Victorian views of China and his relations with Koo were stormy. Lampson reported to London that after one meeting that he had "harangued Koo till I had exhausted my vocabulary".
He served as Premier from January until June 1927, when he resigned after Chang organized a military government. After the Northern Expedition
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...
toppled the government in Beijing in 1928, he was briefly wanted for arrest by the new Nationalist government in Nanking, but through Chang Hsueh-liang
Chang Hsüeh-liang (, June 3, 1901 – October 15, 2001), also romanized as Zhang Xueliang, nicknamed the "Young Marshal" (少帥), known in his later life as Peter H. L. Chang, was the effective ruler of Northeast China and much of norther ...
's mediation he was reconciled with the new government and returned to the diplomatic service. He represented China at the League of Nations to protest the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Their occupation lasted until the ...
.
Much to Koo's fury, the British Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon, was able to insist the League not take action against Japan, and instead appoint a commission to examine whatever Japan had committed aggression or not. Koo was assigned to the League's Lytton Commission
are the findings of the Lytton Commission, entrusted in 1931 by the League of Nations in an attempt to evaluate the Mukden Incident, which led to the Empire of Japan's seizure of Manchuria.
The five-member commission headed by British politicia ...
-so called after its chairman, Lord Lytton-that was sent in December 1931 to go to Manchuria to investigate if Japan was an aggressor or not.
Ambassador in Paris
In August 1932, Koo arrived in Paris as the Chinese minister-plenipotentiary. Koo also concurrently served as the chief of the Chinese delegation to the League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
when it was holding its sessions in Geneva.
When Lord Lytton finally presented his report to the League in February 1933 concluding that Japan had indeed committed aggression, it was the subject of much debate within the League. In March 1933, Koo gave what was described as a very strong speech, urging the League to finally act against Japan, now that it was established by the Lytton commission that Japan had committed aggression. The Japanese delegate to the League, Yōsuke Matsuoka
was a Japanese diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He is best known for his defiant speech at the League of Nations in February 1933, ending Japan's participation in the organ ...
, promptly announced that his government did not accept the Lytton report and was leaving the League, effective immediately.
During the Abyssinia Crisis
The Abyssinia Crisis (; ) was an international crisis in 1935 that originated in what was called the Walwal incident during the ongoing conflict between the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Ethiopia (then commonly known as "Abyssinia"). The Leag ...
caused by the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, Koo was a strong supporter of having the League of Nations apply sanctions against Italy, believing this was a hopeful precedent that might led to the nations that belonged to the League supporting China should Japan invade. In May 1936, the Italians took the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
and Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
proclaimed victory in Rome. Though the Italians never fully controlled the Ethiopian countryside, the conquest of Ethiopia was a major blow to the prestige of the League of Nations. Koo wrote at the time that at the League's headquarters in Geneva there was "a general sickening atmosphere at the impotence and cowardice" of the League in face of the Italian aggression against Ethiopia. On a more hopeful note for Koo, he met the Soviet foreign commissar Maxim Litvinov
Maxim Maximovich Litvinov (; born Meir Henoch Wallach; 17 July 1876 – 31 December 1951) was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet statesman and diplomat.
A strong advocate of diplomatic agreements leading towards disarmament, Litvinov wa ...
who often attended the sessions of the League and discussed with him the possibility of Soviet aid to China.
In 1936, France and China upgraded their relations from the legation to embassy level, and Koo thus became the first Chinese ambassador to France. Fluent in French, Koo and his wife tried very hard to join the high society of Paris, believing it was the best way to make China's case to the French elite. At one party, a French society hostess who believed him to the Japanese ambassador told him: "Japan is a big power, becoming more powerful by the day. You will surely be able to shallow up China". Koo was forced to tell her that he was actually the Chinese ambassador and the last thing he wanted to see was his country being "shallowed up" by Japan. Likewise, Madame Koo tried to leave a party by asking her hosts to call for her chauffeur and her limousine, only for the Japanese ambassador's limousine and chauffeur to appear, as her hosts did not know the difference between Japanese and Chinese. Koo's two teenage sons embarrassed him by throwing deck chairs in a lake in a Paris park, and tried to claim diplomatic immunity when a French gendarme ordered them to stop. The incident attracted much adverse comment in the French newspapers about the badly behaving sons of the Chinese ambassador who were trying to abuse diplomatic immunity.
The Chinese diplomats in Europe together with their families formed a closely knit group who frequently met to discuss matters of common concern. Koo together with Quo Tai-chi
Quo Tai-chi (; 1888–1952) was a diplomat during the Republic of China and an active member of the Kuomintang from the early years of the Republic of China until shortly after the fall of mainland China to the Communists.
Quo was born in Hupe ...
(the ambassador in London), Tsiang Tingfu
Tsiang Tingfu (; 17 February 1895 – 9 October 1965), was a historian and diplomat of the Republic of China who published in English under the name T.F. Tsiang.
Early life and education
Tsiang was born in Shaoyang in Hunan Province. Tsiang's ...
(the ambassador in Moscow), Tsien T'ai (the minister-plenipotentiary in Brussels) and Liang Long (the minister-plenipotentiary in Prague) formed an informal group of intellectuals-turned-diplomats who had similar values and beliefs. The Chinese diplomats stationed in Europe were all intellectuals who given up promising careers in academia to pursue careers in diplomacy in order to best serve China. Cheng Tien-fong, the ambassador in Berlin, was considered to be the "weakest link" amongst the Chinese diplomats with the feeling being that he was unqualified to be a diplomat.
The Sino-Japanese war
In July 1937, Japan invaded China. On 7 July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident () or the July 7 Incident (), was a July 1937 battle between China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army.
Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria ...
occurred, and the Japanese promptly sent 5 divisions into northern China that advanced on Beijing. Koo spent many sleepless nights in the summer of 1937 as he worried deeply about the crisis. Koo met several times with diplomats from the Japanese embassy in Paris in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution, but the Japanese kept making extreme demands that Koo rejected. Koo wrote in his diary that the news from China was "depressing" as he expressed dismay at the news that the Japanese had taken Beijing, adding in "I felt no face to see anybody. China has become a joke". Koo broke off talks with the Japanese who had rejected his demand that Beijing be returned to China. Koo wrote in his diary that reports that the Japanese were heavily bombing Tianjin "made his hair stand up" with fear. Later that same month, the Japanese took Tianjin, which Koo called his diary the "most depressing and sickening news".
As China had hardly an arms industry at the time and needed to import arms, the Chinese were at an disadvantage against the better armed Japanese, whose more industrialized nation did have an arms industry. Koo's principle duty in Paris was to secure the supply of arms into China via a railroad that ran from the French colony of Indochina (modern Vietnam) into China. The arms that were carried into China were not just French, but were also came from the Soviet Union. Several times, the French cabinet considered closing the railroad following complaints from the Japanese embassy in Paris and dark hints that Japan might invade Indochina if the railroad were not closed, but Koo was always able to persuade the French to keep the railroad running. Koo felt that the best response to the Japanese invasion was a Sino-Soviet alliance with "Anglo-American-French material co-operation in the background". Koo believed that as the victors of World War I that both Britain and France had a vested interest in upholding the international order created after that war with "the moral sympathy and support of the United States". Koo argued that the Franco-Soviet alliance provided for a certain stability in Europe, and the lack of the same stability in Asia was what was explained why "Japan could run amuck". Koo felt it was in their own interests of Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States to support China, and he was gravely disappointed when he discovered that his viewpoint was not as widely shared as he had assumed.
As the chief of the Chinese delegation, Koo went to Geneva to lodge a formal complaint at the League of Nations, arguing that Japan was guilty of aggression and the League should impose sanctions on Japan, just as it had imposed sanctions on Italy for its aggression against Ethiopia in 1935. Koo did not expect the League to take action, and the failure of the League to save Ethiopia was hardly an auspicious precedent. However, Koo thought an appeal to the League might win public sympathy in the West. At a meeting with the French Foreign Minister Yvon Delbos
Yvon Delbos (7 May 1885 – 15 November 1956) was a French Radical-Socialist Party politician and minister.
Delbos was born in Thonac, Dordogne, and entered a career as a journalist, and became a member of the Radical-Socialist Party. He sub ...
, Koo learned that the French "advised delay". Koo in turn told Delbos: "The aggression of Japan against China was too flagrant, and if the League should refuse to take cognizance of it, the League would become a complete farce". Delbos cynically told Koo that the League was useless and that "You might as well call for the moon for help as much as the League of Nations". In September 1937, Koo gave a speech to the League, asking for Japan to be declared the aggressor. Koo reported to Nanking that it was clear that "the League could not do much" and that "the matter hinged with Britain and France", the two veto-holding members of the League Council. Both the British and French delegations advised Koo not to ask for sanctions against Japan, warning that the United States was not a member of the League and that sanctions against Japan would only work if the Americans also applied sanctions. Koo himself thought that calling for sanctions would be a mistake as American "collaboration" with imposing sanctions was essential, but the Waichiaopu insisted that Koo ask for sanctions against Japan.
Koo was urged to take his case to the League's Far Eastern Advisory Committee instead of the League Assembly, advice he was predisposed to accept. Koo wrote it "was useless to force things if the powers were unwilling" and it was better to "work with them instead of against them". The Waichiaopu rejected his advice and ordered him to make a case for sanctions. On 16 September 1937, Koo gave a speech at the League's Far Eastern Advisory Committee, asking for the League to declare Japan the aggressor, impose wide-ranging sanctions to cripple the Japanese economy and provide China with economic support. In his appeal, Koo listed a number of war crimes committed by the Japanese, being careful to only quote from reports from Europeans and Americans in order to avoid accusations of bias. Speaking with great anger, Koo stated: "In Tianjin, the most crowded parts of the Chinese city were bombed by Japanese aeroplanes, killing hundreds of people for no other reason than to terrorize civilians. The sight of mangled bodies and the cries of the maimed and wounded were so sickening to the hearts of the foreign Red Cross doctors that they voiced the fervent wish that the governments of the civilized Powers would make an effort to stop the carnage". As Koo had predicated, both Britain and France used their veto powers to prevent Japan from declared the aggressor. Koo in his speech declared that everyday the Japanese were indiscriminately bombing Chinese cities, killing hundreds of innocent people and declared: "Public opinion everyway in the world was indignant, and expected the League to do something". All that Koo achieved was a resolution from the League criticizing the Japanese policy of indiscriminate bombing of Chinese cities, and instead asked for the Japanese to engage in discriminate bombing of Chinese military targets.
On 1 October 1937, at a meeting of the Far Eastern Advisory Committee, the British delegate to the League, C.A. Edmond, announced that his government wanted to see a 9-Power conference to be held in Brussels about seeking a diplomatic solution to the Sino-Japanese war. Koo wrote the British offer "fell like a bomb, deafening the senses". In an attempt to involve the United States, the British resolution called all the powers that signed the Nine-Power Treaty
The Nine-Power Treaty (Japanese: or Nine-Power Agreement () was a 1922 treaty affirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of China as per the Open Door Policy. The Nine-Power Treaty was signed on 6 February 1922 by all of ...
of 1922 (which included the United States) to attend a conference in Brussels to discuss a solution to the war. On 5 October 1937, the Far Eastern Advisory Committee submitted to the League Assembly a resolution criticizing the Sino-Japanese war in general without saying which power was responsible, and merely asked that all of the League members not to take any steps that might weaken China's ability to resist. Koo was dissatisfied with the attempt to shift the onus on action from the League to the signatory powers of the Nine-Power Treaty, saying that: "the Washington Treaty cannot relieve League members of their obligations under the Covenant". Koo was chosen to head the Chinese delegation to the Brussels conference, which took place in November 1937. Koo believed that American involvement in the Brussels conference signaled a determination on the part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
to take action, saying he believed that "the United States...would not like to see the conference fail and admit defeat". However, Koo's hopes were dashed by a meeting with William Christian Bullitt Jr.
William Christian Bullitt Jr. (January 25, 1891 – February 15, 1967) was an American diplomat, journalist, and novelist. He is known for his special mission to negotiate with Lenin on behalf of the Paris Peace Conference, often recalled as a mi ...
, the American ambassador to France, who was a close friend of President Roosevelt. Koo was warned that the United States was unwilling to take a leadership role at the conference and would prefer that Koo not attend to provide "full liberty of discussion". Before departing, Koo told Delbos: "China did not want peace at any price, but only peace with justice". In the meantime, the Japanese had threatened to bomb French Indochina if the French continued to allow arms to be imported into China. On 17 October 1937, Koo was informed that France would continue to allow arms to be sold to China, but none could be taken in via the Indochinese railroad, which in effect cut China off from French arms. In response to vehement criticism from Koo, the French reversed their position and agreed to reopen the railroad, albeit on a "temporary" basis.
On 31 October 1937, Koo left Paris for Brussels, and his train took him through a number of battlefields of World War One. Koo later wrote that as he watched from his train the still recovering French countryside that it "led me to reflect that although the youthfulness of the trees and the relative newness of the buildings still told the story of the war, the world had learned little from it. A new war was in the atmosphere everywhere". On November 3, 1937, the conference opened and Koo gave a speech accusing Japan of aggression. Japan was invited to attend the conference, bu the Japanese chose to boycott it instead. Norman Davis, the head of the American delegation, took the viewpoint that it was up to Britain and France to confront Japan and that the United States would only do the barest minimum possible to restrain Japan. Koo who had expected more of the Americans was deeply discouraged. The French were only prepared to act if the United States was willing to take the lead as the French saw Franco-American co-operation in Asia as a way of bringing the United States into European affairs to restrain Germany. The British likewise would only act in Asia if the United States were willing to take the lead. On 12 November 1937, Japan issued a statement firmly ruling out taking part in the Brussels conference and refused the offer of mediation, claiming that the war was a defensive struggle as the Japanese maintained that China was the aggressor. After the conference, Koo met with the American and British delegations, saying that all he wanted was for the United States and the United Kingdom to ship arms on a massive scale to China while offering up a "guarantee" to protect French Indochina from a Japanese attack. Koo argued that: "just as domestic order requires more than laws on the statue books, mere words are insufficient to restore peace and order in the face of international violence". At a press conference, Koo stated that at the conference Britain had acted like a "friend" towards China while the United States had not, a remark that infuriated Davis. However, Koo continued to invest his hopes in the United States, writing "that the United States could save the situation if it only act quickly and energetically".
In December 1937, Koo's spirits sank to a new low by the news that the Japanese had taken Nanking, the capital of China, which was promptly followed up by the infamous "Rape of Nanking". That same month, the Japanese sank the American gunboat U.S.S ''Panay'' on the Yangtze river and in the process killed several American sailors. Koo hoped that the ''Panay'' incident might lead to the United States taking action against Japan, and he was disappointed when Roosevelt chose instead to accept the Japanese apology that the sinking of the ''Panay'' was a mistake, despite the fact the ''Panay'' was flying the American flag at the time the Japanese aircraft bombed the gunboat. Koo noted in his reports that the French were worried that keeping the Indochinese railroad open would lead to a Japanese invasion of Indochina. Koo countered this thesis by arguing that if the Japanese conquered China, it would be likely that they would try to conquer Indochina, and it was in France's own interest to assist China. Despite their fears, the Indochinese railroad remained open.
From the Sudetenland crisis to the Danzig crisis
During the Sudetenland crisis of 1938, Koo favored having the idea of deterring Germany from invading Czechoslovakia by involving the League of Nations, whose charter called for "collective security" in the event of aggression. Koo believed that this represented a precedent that could be applied to China. The French cabinet minister that Koo was most close to was Georges Mandel
Georges Mandel (5 June 1885 – 7 July 1944) was a French journalist, politician, and French Resistance leader.
Early life
Born Louis George Rothschild in Chatou, Yvelines, he was the son of a tailor and his wife. His family was Jewish, originally ...
, the minister of the colonies. As the colonial minister, Mandel was in charge of French Indochina and thus had the power to allow or deny arm shipments to China. By contrast, Koo had difficult relations with Georges Bonnet
Georges-Étienne Bonnet (22/23 July 1889 – 18 June 1973) was a French politician who served as foreign minister in 1938 and 1939 and was a leading figure in the Radical Party.
Early life
Bonnet was born in Bassillac, Dordogne, the son of ...
, the foreign minister who was in favor of ceasing arm shipments to China to improve relations with Japan. Through Mandel did not always the authority, he continued to allow Soviet arms to be transshipped via Indochina to China over the protests of both Bonnet and the Japanese. Koo reported that through the French Premier Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II.
Daladier was born in Carpentr ...
did not always support the anti-appeasement faction in his cabinet led by Mandel, but that Daladier was sympathetic towards China and overruled Bonnet when he pressed to have the Indochinese railroad closed. French premiers in the Third Republic had powers analogous to the chairmen of a committee as cabinets in the Third Republic were coalition governments. The Daladier cabinet was divided into three factions with the "peace lobby" (appeasement) faction led by Bonnet; the "firmness" (anti-appeasement) faction led by Mandel; and Daladier leading another faction that rested uneasily between the other two.
The ambassador that Koo spoke with the most was William Christian Bullitt Jr.
William Christian Bullitt Jr. (January 25, 1891 – February 15, 1967) was an American diplomat, journalist, and novelist. He is known for his special mission to negotiate with Lenin on behalf of the Paris Peace Conference, often recalled as a mi ...
, the American ambassador to France. Bullitt was a close friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
who had appointed him ambassador to France in 1936 to serve as his personal representative as Bullitt completely by-passed the Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and instead sent his reports straight to the president, whom he also spoke to by telephone at least once every week. Koo had hopes that speaking to Bullitt would influence Roosevelt. In July 1938 when the Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau Jr.
Henry Morgenthau Jr. (; May 11, 1891February 6, 1967) was the United States Secretary of the Treasury during most of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal. After 1937, while ...
, visited Paris, Bullitt introduced him to Koo, whom spoke about the need for American economic aid to China. Through Morgenthau could make no promises on behalf of Congress, he promised to use his influence in Washington to lobby for financial aid to China.
In September 1938, Koo attended the fall session of the League of Nations in Geneva, where he pressed for sanctions against Japan. In his speech, Koo complained at the previous sessions of the League in September 1938 and in May 1938, all China had received were "nicely-worded resolutions", going on to say "The resolutions remain nothing, but empty words." Owning to the Sudetenland crisis, both the British and French delegations asked for Koo not to speak about the Sino-Japanese war, saying this was not an opportune time to speak of the issue, but Koo ignored their objections.
After the Munich Agreement, Koo reported to Chunking that Germany was now the dominant power in eastern Europe, which he felt had important ramifications for China. Koo wrote that the result of the Sudetenland crisis had badly damaged the prestige of France, which led him to predicate that the French would become more preoccupied with European affairs at the expense of Asian affairs. Koo wrote that the way that Czechoslovakia-a major French ally since 1924-had been forced to accept a highly unfavorable settlement in the form of the Munich Agreement, had left France's other allies in eastern Europe such as Poland, Yugoslavia and Romania "fearful" of the future. Koo predicated that the French would either accept eastern Europe as being in the German sphere of influence or make an attempt to retain influence in eastern Europe by strengthening their existing alliances, arguing that the latter was the more likely of the two scenarios. Koo described the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...
as an "old man" who ignored "obligations under international law or the principle of international morality" during the crisis. Koo wrote that Chamberlain wanted to revive the 19th century Concert of Europe
The Concert of Europe was a general consensus among the Great Powers of 19th-century Europe to maintain the European balance of power, political boundaries, and spheres of influence. Never a perfect unity and subject to disputes and jockeying f ...
by creating an Anglo-German duumvirate that would "dominate and control the smaller and weaker powers". Koo argued that Chamberlain's attempts to create an Anglo-German dominated new Concert of Europe had finished off the League of Nations as a force in world politics and would have a disastrous impact on Anglo-Soviet relations, which had never been friendly to begin with. Finally, Koo concluded that Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
was angry at the way that the Soviet Union had been snubbed during the Sudetenland crisis, which he argued would focus Soviet attention on Europe at the expense of Asia. He felt that the possibility of an Anglo-German new Concert of Europe would greatly strain Anglo-Soviet relations. Koo stated that he believed that the Soviet Union would never a risk a war with Japan as long as Germany continued to expand into Eastern Europe and would hence limit the amount of aid it would provide China to avoid a war with Japan, through he also predicated that the Soviets would not cut off aid to China as they preferred to keep the Japanese engaged in the war.
On 3 November 1938, the Japanese Prime Minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoe
Prince was a Japanese politician and prime minister. During his tenure, he presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the breakdown in relations with the United States, which ultimately culminated in Japan's entry into World W ...
, called a press conference in Tokyo where he proclaimed the "New Order in Asia" as he made a statement to the effect that Japan was now the hegemonic power in Asia and that China was in the Japanese sphere of influence. The American, British and French governments all issued statements rejecting the Japanese claim to the "New Order in Asia", which encouraged Koo. Koo was especially encouraged by the American statement, which he felt reflected "a hardening of the American attitude vis-á-vis Japan". Koo noted that the French were still permitting military supplies to be sent to China through French Indochina, and his thesis that helping China was a way of helping France by keeping the Japanese engaged was winning him friends in Paris.
On 15 March 1939, Germany occupied the Czech part of Czecho-Slovakia, creating the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia. In response, a new Anglo-French policy of creating a "peace front" to deter Germany from further aggression was inaugurated. Koo supported the policy of the "peace front", believing that it would benefit China by preventing a war in Europe that would benefit Japan by distracting Anglo-French attention away from Asia. Koo tried to associate China with the "peace front", arguing that supporting China would benefit both Britain and France by keeping the Japanese engaged in China, which in turn would limit the possibility of the Japanese attacking the British and French colonies in Asia. Koo described Japan as a nation bent "on the conquest of China, subjection of Asia and finally domination of the world". Somewhat paradoxically, Koo found himself defending the "unequal treaties" that he was normally opposed as he argued to French leaders that the Japanese conquest of China would "make it impossible to safeguard legitimate western rights and interests, and that respect for China's sovereignty and maintenance of the open door".
In June 1939, Koo discovered a senior Chinese diplomat, Huang Zheng, had been selling visas to Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Koo recorded the incident: "Apparently an agreement was signed between a travel agency and the visa office of the consulate-general to secure Chinese government passports for Jews who had fled by the hundreds, if not the thousands, from the Fascist- and Nazi-dominated parts of Europe...and the applicants were charged 800 francs upon receiving a visa, which was well above the regular fee, and, as was reported to me, the money was divided between one certain travel agency, through which only the Jewish applicants could get the passports from the consulate-general annex, and the Chinese consulate-general. It was evidently an illicit, unauthorized and unjustifiable attempt by the issuing group to exploit the situation of the Jews".
Huang was suspended and the Waichiaopu told Koo that the visas were invalid. The leaders of several French Jewish groups met with Koo to ask him to lobby the Waichiaopu to allow the Jewish refugees to travel with the visas, arguing that through Huang was corrupt, that the refugees had purchased the visas in good faith to escape Europe. Koo did press the Waichiaopu to allow the Jewish refugees to go to China. On 22 June 1939, Koo stated he read reports in the French press of a plan to settle Jewish refugees in Yunnan province, leading him to ask his superiors what was the Chinese attitude towards accepting Jewish refugees. Koo also noted the refugees wanted to settle in Shanghai, which was the largest and most wealthiest city in China, and which had been occupied by the Japanese in November 1937. Koo argued through it was not clear if the Japanese would actually allow the Jews to settle in Shanghai, but that allowing Jewish refugees to travel to Shanghai with visas issued by the Republic of China was an important symbolic gesture that the Republic of China was still the legitimate government of all China. This was especially important as the Japanese had created the sham state of Manchukuo in Manchuria under the Emperor Puyi and the puppet "reorganized" government of Wang Jingwei
Wang Jingwei (4 May 1883 – 10 November 1944), born as Wang Zhaoming and widely known by his pen name Jingwei, was a Chinese politician. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang, leading a government in Wuhan in oppositi ...
that claimed to be the legitimate government of the rest of China.
War in Europe
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and on 3 of September, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Koo wrote in his diary on 3 September 1939: "These are momentous days in history, the beginning of a war which may alter the face of the world and of civilization itself". Shortly afterwards, Koo suggested in a message to Chiang Kai-shek that China formally declared its wish to align with the Allied powers and to offer Chinese resources and manpower to aid the Allied cause in Europe. On 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland, leading to calls to expel the Soviet Union from the League of Nations. At the session of the League Assembly when a vote was taken to expel the Soviet Union, Koo as the chief of the Chinese delegation chose to abstain from the vote, which ended with the Soviet Union become the first and only member to be expelled from the League.
On 18 June 1940, the Japanese submitted an ultimatum threatening to invade Indochina if the French did immediately end all arms sales to China at once. On 20 June 1940, the government of Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World ...
submitted to the ultimatum and ended all arms sales to China. On 21 June 1940, an armistice was signed, taking France out of the war. Koo briefly served as the Chinese ambassador in Vichy, where he was forced to live under reduced conditions. Under the armistice signed on 21 June 1940, Germany imposed harsh reparations on France while the franc was artificially devalued in regard to the ''Reichsmark'', which essentially allowed the occupiers to loot France. Owning to the shortage of food in occupied France, Koo's wife observed that he was forced to eat canned food for the first in his entire life. Koo spent the rest of the summer of 1940, trying to persuade Vichy officials to resume arms shipments. Koo reported to Chongqing
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...
that France was "powerless" in Asia as he stated that he had information on good authority that the Germans had ordered that the French should not "provoke" the Japanese. In July 1940, the British submitted to a Japanese ultimatum and closed the Burma Road, through the road was reopened again in October 1940. In September 1940, the Japanese occupied the northern half of French Indochina. For Koo, the only hopeful news that the United States reacted sharply to the Japanese advance into Indochina, warning Tokyo that this was regarded in Washington as an extremely unfriendly act, and that the Japanese should not occupy the southern half of French Indochina under any conditions.
Ambassador in London
Afterwards, he was the Chinese Ambassador to the Court of St James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court for the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. All ambassadors to the United Kingdom are formally received by the court. All ambassadors from the United Kingdom are formally accredited from the court – & ...
until 1946. Koo decided that wartime London was too dangerous for his family to live, and sent his wife and children to New York. Madame Koo had wanted to go to London and went to New York most unwillingly. In 1941, Koo was appointed Chinese ambassador in London. Many in the Foreign Office disliked Koo as one of Britain's "bitterest enemies" in the 1920s, charging that he was a Chinese nationalist who rejected the "white man's burden" view of Britain's role in the world. Koo's main role in London was in seeking British support for China and especially to ensure that the British did not close the Burma Road, which was China's lifeline following the closure of the French railroad to China. In July 1941, the Japanese occupied the southern half of French Indochina, giving Japan the ability to project air and naval power well into the South China Sea. In response, the American, British and Dutch governments imposed an oil embargo on Japan and froze all Japanese assets in their countries. The Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden chose not to inform Koo of these steps, who first learned of these British moves from reading the newspapers. Koo was deeply worried about a possible Japanese invasion of Burma, which would close the Burma Road. Koo pressed for more British aid to China, only to be told that the British were fully committed to the struggle against Germany and had little to spare to assist China. In the summer and fall of 1941, Koo offered to have Chinese troops sent to reinforce the garrison in Hong Kong, only to be politely rebuffed as the Foreign Office told him that the existing Anglo-Indian-Canadian garrison could hold Hong Kong against any Japanese attack.
Following the Japanese attack on the British empire in December 1941, the Japanese invaded the British colony of Burma in January 1942 from Thailand. As an ambassador in London, Koo played a critical role in the talks that saw the British grant the Chinese permission to send two armies into Burma to assist the British in the defense of Burma. The British prime minister, Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
, was opposed to accepting the Chinese offer, preferring that Burma be defended by only British troops or Indian troops under the command of British officers. Much to Koo's pleasure, the dire situation in Burma with the British being defeated by an invading Japanese force that consisted of only 2 divisions forced Churchill to accept the Chinese offer of help. For Koo, the fact that Britain was being forced to accept Chinese help symbolized how the Second World War was changing the face of world politics. However, the Chinese intervention did not stem the Japanese advance and by May 1942 the Japanese had occupied all of Burma, reaching the frontiers of India.
Koo noted that the Japanese victories in southeast Asia were further cutting off China from the rest of the world, but at least had the benefit of making British officials more respectful as he noted after the fall of Singapore, the British lost their customary distain for Asians. The way that only four divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army who despite being outnumbered three to one by an Anglo-Indian-Australian force opposing them had been able to conquer Malaya and Singapore, billed at the time as the "Gibraltar of the East", in less than two months both astonished and shocked British officials. Koo noted that through Churchill was firmly committed to the "Europe First" strategy that the Japanese victories in southeast Asia that had pushed the Imperial Japanese Army right to the frontiers of India increased the importance of keeping China in the war. From 1937 to 1945, 38 of the 51 divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army were fighting in China with only 9 divisions being used for the conquest of southeast Asia in late 1941-early 1942. In December 1941, the Japanese sent 1 division to conquer the British colony of Hong Kong; 4 divisions to conquer the British colonies of Malaya and Singapore; another 2 divisions to conquer the American colony of the Philippines; another 3 divisions to conquer the Dutch colony of the Netherlands East Indies (modern Indonesia); and finally assigned 2 divisions to the conquest of the British colony of Burma. The Special Landing Force of the Imperial Japanese Navy was assigned the task of taking Wake island and Guam. From the British perspective, it was crucial that the Chinese continued to fight the Japanese, which improved the Chinese bargaining position in London. Koo noted that paradoxically the Allied defeats in 1941-1942 had improved China's bargaining position as both the British and the Americans very much wanted to keep the Chinese fighting in order to keep the 38 Japanese divisions in China from being used against their forces.
Koo also pressed hard to end the 19th century "unequal treaties" and especially wanted the end of British extraterritorial rights in China. On 11 January 1943, Koo signed in London a new Sino-British treaty that saw Britain renounce all of its extraterritorial rights in China, through the British refused to return Hong Kong as the Chinese had wanted. Through Koo failed to secure the return of Hong Kong, he called the new Sino-British treaty in his diary "a really an epoch-making event-the biggest treaty in a century". In 1943, Madame Koo and her children finally arrived in London, but this time a rift had developed in the marriage as Koo was most unhappy with the ghost-written autobiography that his wife had just published prior to leaving New York.
In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek visited India, where he caused a storm in the British press by his statements in favor of Indian independence, saying he wanted to see India "free now and independent after the war". However, Chiang also voiced support for India continuing in the war as he warned that the Japanese were not liberators, and stated he envisioned a free India as an ally of China against Japan, which Chiang called a brutally imperialistic power. Chiang ordered Koo to provide him with an assessment of British public opinion regarding India. Chiang also instructed Koo that his answers to the British protests regarding his statements were to state that China wanted India to be granted Dominion status, which he believed would lead to the Indians of their own choice continuing the war. Koo reported that on the basis of statements made in the House of Commons and in the British press that only a minority in Britain favored independence for India with the majority favoring continuing the rule of the Raj after the war. Koo followed his orders by stating to British officials that China only wanted to see India to become a Dominion, and was shocked to hear various British officials insist that to give India Dominion status would lead to "twenty years of anarchy and disorder". When Koo asked why the Indians could not be trusted to govern themselves, he was told that "occidental influence had only penetrated the top strata of Indian society". The Foreign Office officials told Koo that they thought that China was suffering from a "persecution complex". Koo met Churchill at 10 Downing street, where he found the prime minister to be "a little peeved and sullen". Churchill told Koo that "the British were not decadent and defeatist" as was being said in the Chinese newspapers, and then returned to a genial mood.
In late July 1943, the Chinese Foreign Minister, T. V. Soong
Soong Tse-vung, more commonly romanized as Soong Tse-ven or Soong Tzu-wen (; 4 December 1894 – 25 April 1971), was a prominent businessman and politician in the early 20th-century Republic of China, who served as Premier. His father was Char ...
, visited London, where he met with Eden and Koo to discuss plans for a British offensive from India into Burma with the aim of reopening the Burma Road. Soong reported to Chiang that based on his talks with Eden and Koo that the British did not regard China as a serious military power and that Churchill was far interested in the war against Germany than with Japan. Soong's assumptions were proved correct when he met with Churchill on 4 August 1943. Churchill listed a number of ways to defeat Japan such as a strategical bombing offensive, having the Soviet Union declare war on Japan, invading Japan via the Aleutian islands, and an offensive by the Chinese, but notably did not mention any offensive into Burma. After the Cairo conference of 1943, Eden told Koo that he rather liked Chiang and his American-educated wife, Soong Mei-ling
Soong Mei-ling (also spelled Soong May-ling, ; March 5, 1898 – October 23, 2003), also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek or Madame Chiang, was a Chinese political figure who was First Lady of the Republic of China, the wife of Generalissimo and ...
, who served as his translator as Chiang only spoke Mandarin. Koo reported to Chongqing
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...
that Eden was the only member of the British cabinet who was sympathetic towards China, and expressed regret that Eden was not the prime minister, writing that Anglo-Chinese relations would be much better if Eden instead of Churchill were the prime minister. Wang Shih-chieh, a member of Chiang's staff, told Koo after the Cairo conference that Chiang and Churchill disliked each other, and Roosevelt was forced to play the peace-maker. Eden told Koo that Churchill had tried to explain British grand strategy to Chiang as he maintained that the British were committed to defeating Japan, but had to devote most of their resources towards the war against Germany as the British were fighting in Italy and were due to take part in an invasion of France the next year. Most notably, Churchill had changed his position, agreeing that the Anglo-Indian-African 14th Army would launch an offensive into Burma in 1944, but Chiang continued to mistrust him, believing that Churchill was not being sincere.
Unlike Chiang, who had a deep mistrust of Britain, Koo favored an Anglo-Chinese alliance after the war, preferably with the United States also joining. During a visit to China in 1943, Koo told Chiang that Churchill was strongly anti-communist and did not expect the wartime alliance with Soviet Union to continue after the war. Koo stated he felt with the long-standing vexatious issue of extraterritorial rights finally settled in China's favor, it would be possible to make an alliance with the United Kingdom against the Soviet Union after the war. Chiang was opposed to Koo's ideas, believing that such an alliance would limit his ability to deal with the Soviets by committing China to a rigidly anti-Soviet line, and would only agree to such an alliance if the United States also joined in, which he thought was unlikely. Chiang expected the United States to return to isolationism after the war, just as it had done after the First World War. Chiang told Koo that "English diplomacy" was "shrewd and cunning" and that British would "adhere stubbornly to their traditional polices".
In the summer of 1944, Koo was contacted by agents of Charles de Gaulle, who wanted an agreement that China would support restoration of French rule in Indochina after the war. Koo advised Chiang to accept the French offer, stating that France would probably a major power again after the war.
United Nations
In 1945, Koo was one of the founding delegates of the United Nations. He later became the Chinese Ambassador to the United States and focused on maintaining the alliance between the Republic of China and the United States as the Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
began losing to the Communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
and had to retreat to Taiwan.
Koo retired from the Chinese diplomatic service in 1956. and in the same year he became a judge of the International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
in The Hague, and served as Vice-President of the Court during the final three years of his term. In 1967, he retired and moved to New York City, where he lived until his death in 1985.
In an interview conducted in 1969 on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, Koo stated that the Paris peace conference, which launched the May 4th movement, was a turning point in Chinese views of the West as he observed that many Chinese intellectuals believed the victorious powers of 1918 would allow China to be treated as an equal, and the outcome of the Paris peace conference had turned public opinion against the Western powers. There was a widespread feeling in China that given the suffering of the Chinese coolies on the Western Front that France, Great Britain and the United States would reward China for its sacrifices. Koo stated: "Looking back at China's stand at the Paris peace conference and the developments preceding, it appears that these events are...a turning point in China's history, both from the domestic and international point of view...One could wonder what would be the situation in China oday Uday or Odai is a masculine name in Arabic as well as several Indian languages. In many Indian languages it means 'dawn' or 'rise'. The Arabic name (عدي) means 'runner' or 'rising'.
List of people
* Uday Benegal, Indian musician
* Uday Pratap S ...
either if China had succeeded in settling the Shandong question in Paris to her satisfaction or if she had signed the treaty without the reservation. These are questions which probably can never be fully answered now". Koo noted that the new Communist government in Russia, which denounced liberalism as a device for Western imperialism and renounced all of the special Russian rights in China gained under the Tsarist regime, won tremendous prestige in China as the one power that seemed willing to treat China as an equal, which led directly to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1920.
Personal life
In 1908, Koo married his first wife, Chang Jun-o (). They divorced prior to 1912.
Koo's second wife, Tang Pao-yueh "May" (; c. 1895–1918), was the youngest daughter of the former Chinese prime minister Tang Shaoyi
Tang Shaoyi (; 2 January 1862 – 30 September 1938), also spelled Tong Shao Yi, courtesy name Shaochuan (), was a Chinese statesman who briefly served as the first Premier of the Republic of China in 1912. In 1938, he was assassinated by the ...
and a first cousin of the painter and actress Mai-Mai Sze
Yuen Tsung Sze (December 2, 1909 – July 16, 1992), known professionally as Mai-mai Sze, was a Chinese-American painter and writer. The Bollingen Foundation first published her translation of the ''Jieziyuan Huazhuan'' or ''The Mustard Seed Gard ...
. Their marriage took place soon after Koo's return to China in 1912. She died in the US during the 1918 Spanish flu
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
pandemic. They had two children: a son, Teh-chang Koo (1916–1998), and a daughter, Patricia Tsien (1918-2015),.
Koo's third wife was the socialite and style icon Oei Hui-lan
Oei Hui-lan (; 2 December 1889 – 1992), known as Madame Wellington Koo, was a Chinese-Indonesian international socialite and style icon, and, from late 1926 until 1927, the First Lady of the Republic of China. She was married firstly to Bri ...
(1889–1992).[Index to Lafayette photographs of Asian sitters]
lafayette.150m.com She married Koo in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, in 1921.[Van Rensselaer Thayer, Mary (5 February 1939) "Mme. Koo Sees Our Future Linked With China's", The New York Times][ She was previously married, in 1909, to British consular agent Beauchamp Stoker, by whom she had one son, Lionel, before divorcing in 1920. Much admired for her adaptations of traditional Manchu fashion, which she wore with lace trousers and jade necklaces,][ Oei Hui-lan was the favorite daughter of '']Peranakan
The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, th ...
'' tycoon ''Majoor'' Oei Tiong Ham, and the heiress of a prominent family of the ''Cabang Atas
The Cabang Atas (''Van Ophuijsen Spelling System'': Tjabang Atas) — literally 'highest branch' in Indonesian language, Indonesian — was the traditional Chinese establishment or gentry of Dutch East Indies, colonial Indonesia. They were the fa ...
'' or the Chinese gentry of colonial Indonesia. She wrote two memoirs: ''Hui-Lan Koo (Mrs. Wellington Koo): An Autobiography'' (written with Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer, Dial Press, 1945) and ''No Feast Lasts Forever'' (written with Isabella Taves, Quadrangle/The New York Times, 1975). Koo had two sons with her: Yu-chang Wellington Koo Jr. (1922–1975) and Fu-chang Freeman Koo (1923–1977).
On September 3, 1959, Koo married his fourth wife Yen Yu-yun (1905–2017), the widow of Clarence Kuangson Young. He had three stepdaughters from this marriage: Genevieve (wife of American photographer and film director Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and film director, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particu ...
), Shirley and Frances Loretta Young (wife of Oscar Tang
Oscar Liu-Chien Tang () is a Chinese-born American financier who co-founded Reich & Tang, an asset management firm. Tang was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005. Prior to this, he was appointed to the New York Sta ...
).["Ku Wei-chun," in Howard Boorman, Richard Howard, eds. ''Biographical Dictionary of Republican China'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1968, Vol 2 pp. 255–259.]
Death
Koo lived long enough to see two of his sons die before him. He died surrounded by his family on the night of 14 November 1985, at the age of 97. Wellington Koo was survived by his fourth wife, two children, nineteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Dying older than the 87-year old Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 t ...
, the 87-year old Republic of China President Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
, the 92-year old People's Republic paramount leader Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...
, and the 96-year old People's Republic paramount leader Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pres ...
, Koo holds the distinction of being the longest-lived person to ever lead China. Despite this, both his third and fourth wife lived even longer than he did: Oei Hui-lan
Oei Hui-lan (; 2 December 1889 – 1992), known as Madame Wellington Koo, was a Chinese-Indonesian international socialite and style icon, and, from late 1926 until 1927, the First Lady of the Republic of China. She was married firstly to Bri ...
died at the age 103 and Juliana Koo died at the age of 111.
References
Citations
Sources
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* Chervin, Reed H. "Turmoil in the Taiwan Strait: Wellington Koo and ROC Foreign Policy 1953-1956." ''East Asia: An International Quarterly'', 2013, Vol 4 pp. 291–306.
* .
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* Hui-lan Oei Koo, with Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer, ''Hui-Lan Koo: An Autobiography'' New York: Dial Press, 1943.
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* Wen Yuan-ning
Wen Yuan-ning ( 1900-1984), also known as Oon Guan-neng, was a Chinese professor, writer, and diplomat.
Wen Yuan-ning was born in Bangka Island, Bangka off Sumatra, formerly of the Dutch East Indies and now of Indonesia, to an immigrant Chinese H ...
. "Dr. Wellington Koo", in
Imperfect Understanding: Intimate Portraits of Modern Chinese Celebrities
'' Edited by Christopher Rea. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2018, pp. 65–66.
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External links
Finding aid to the V.K. Wellington Koo papers at Columbia University
Papers of Wellington Koo
at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York, NY
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V.K. Wellington Koo (Gu Weijun) 顾维钧
from ''Biographies of Prominent Chinese'' c.1925.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Koo, Wellington
1888 births
1985 deaths
Republic of China politicians from Shanghai
Ambassadors of China to the United States
Ambassadors of the Republic of China to the United States
Chinese jurists
Presidents of the Republic of China
Columbia College (New York) alumni
International Court of Justice judges
Premiers of the Republic of China
Columbia University alumni
St. John's University, Shanghai alumni
Permanent Representatives of the Republic of China to the League of Nations
20th-century diplomats
20th-century Chinese heads of government
Family of Majoor Oei Tiong Ham
Chinese judges of United Nations courts and tribunals
Finance Ministers of the Republic of China
Chinese people of World War I
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