THE CASE OF

THE FOREIGN RESIDENTS IN JAPAN

FROM time to time a paragraph appears in the daily papers announcing that Japan has successfully concluded a new treaty with one or other of the Powers, by which its foreign relations are placed upon a different and improved footing. Great Britain was the first of the Powers to sign such a Treaty, the signatures of the Earl of Kimberley and of Viscount Aoki being affixed to the instrument on the 16th of July, 1894; and at the time of writing, France is the only considerable Power which still remains to some extent hostile to the Japanese claims, while even in her case it is confidently stated that negotiations are far advanced, and that only one or two minor points remain to be discussed before the Revised Treaty is signed. The phrase Revision of the Treaties,' though descriptive of a controversy which has excited the keenest interest among foreign residents of Japan for the last fifteen years, probably has little meaning for the English reader at home, and before proceeding to a discussion of the new arrangement made with Japan, a few explanatory sentences and a brief sketch of the various negotiations may be of service.

A revision of the treaties with foreign Powers which should render Japan independent in reality as well as in name has been the ambition of every statesman who, for the last fifteen or twenty years, has occupied the post of Foreign Minister in that country; and it is but natural to sympathise with the aspiration thus kept in view, for until the revision of the Treaties originally forced upon her could be accomplished, Japan could scarcely be said to have entered the comity of nations. The Treaties in effect regarded Japan as an uncivilised State, to the operation of whose laws it was impossible to entrust the lives and liberties of Europeans and Americans resorting to her shores. Therefore it was provided that any foreigner committing an offence on Japanese territory should be handed over to the consul of his nationality for trial and punishment, and any Japanese who considered himself aggrieved by the conduct or procedure of a foreigner must bring suit in the court to which the foreigner was subject, the foreigner only coming into the Japanese courts when taking

action against a native of the country. Moreover, districts were set apart at certain ports where foreigners could reside and trade, and the government of which was made altogether separate from the general administration of the country, being in some cases placed in the hands of foreigners themselves, as, for example, at Kobe, where a municipality was created, composed of the foreign consuls, assisted by a committee chosen from among the foreign residents, which had power to levy taxes, raise its own police force, and govern its little community without any reference whatever to the greater State of which it formed a part. On the other hand, foreigners were by these Treaties confined to certain limits, usually twenty-five miles in any direction from the Treaty port, and these limits they were not allowed to overpass unless armed with a permit issued by the Japanese Government; nor were foreigners, even with these permits, allowed to enter the interior for purposes of trade.

The idea underlying these various precautions was that the Japanese Government could not be expected to hold itself responsible for the safety of foreigners who should venture to extend their activity beyond Treaty limits; and in the unsettled state of the country which prevailed when the Treaties were negotiated, there was undoubtedly reason for the precautions taken both to secure the safety of foreigners and to prevent possible complications arising from mixed residence. But as time went on, Japanese statesmen began to perceive that, however convenient such an arrangement may have been in the early days of foreign intercourse, so long as it continued to exist-so long as Japan acquiesced in the surrender of control over a portion of her territory, and over the strangers within her gates-so long must she be content to stifle any ambition of ranking as a Power of the first class. The country was, therefore, no sooner settled under the Westernised form of government, introduced on the restoration of the Mikado in 1868, and the local administration re-formed on the new lines-a work of some years-than Japanese statesmen began to turn their attention to the question, with a view to effecting such a revision of the Treaties as should remove from Japan the implication of being an uncivilised State. With the object of effecting a modification of the obnoxious provisions, the Powers were first approached collectively

1 Kobe and Osaka are the only foreign settlements in Japan which still retain their own municipality, control in other cases having from various causes lapsed to the Japanese. It may not be out of place here to remark that, curious and even unjustifiable as the arrangement for self-government may now be regarded, it is to the credit of both foreigners and Japanese alike that it has worked with remarkably little friction. Kobe, by the excellence of its administration, has won the reputation of being the 'Model Settlement' of Japan, having fine broad streets, well lighted and well drained, with substantially built houses-doing such credit, indeed, to its form of government that when Count Okuma (lately appointed Foreign Minister) made it a visit some months ago, he called the attention of the Japanese to the contrast the foreign settlement afforded when compared with the state of affairs prevailing in the native town.

but without the negotiations meeting with success, it being found impossible to combat the various objections to revision when these were advanced in the mass and supported by the combined action of the Powers. The attempt was, therefore, abandoned for the time, and the relations between foreigners and Japanese perforce remained as the Treaties provided. Each successive minister who accepted the foreign portfolio kept the problem in view, but without finding a solution, its complexity increasing meanwhile from the fact that a powerful political party was growing up in Japan which declared that it would be satisfied with nothing short of revision upon equal lines, Japan on her part to surrender nothing in return for the recovery of full judicial and fiscal autonomy. The projects for revision which were first proposed to the Powers by the Japanese Government fell far short of what these Japanese patriots considered was due to their country, as such proposals sought modifications of the existing arrangements rather than the complete and final abolition of extra-territoriality.

The controversy had reached this stage when it occurred to the Japanese Ministry that there would be far greater hope of success if negotiations could be opened with the Powers separately, instead of their being carried on by means of a joint conference, where the utterance of objections by one diplomatist indirectly lent force to other objections offered by his colleagues. The new idea was quickly acted upon. Under the skilful direction of Count Okuma, then Minister for Foreign Affairs-an office to which, after an interval of several years, he has recently again been appointed-a project for the revision of the Treaties was drawn up and submitted to more than one of the foreign Powers, with a very favourable result, negotiations being so far advanced with Germany, indeed, that a new Treaty was actually signed, in which considerable concessions were made to Japan. Extra-territoriality was surrendered by Germany in return for the throwing open of the whole country to German subjects, while a Mixed Tribunal, to which foreign judges were to be appointed, was to be created for the trial of cases affecting Germans or German interests. This Treaty was signed in 1889, but the ratifications were never exchanged. Its terms were no sooner published than they excited the most violent opposition from certain patriotic politicians, who denounced in the strongest terms the establishment of a Mixed Tribunal, which they declared would be as great an injustice to Japan as the extra-territoriality for which it was to be a substitute. Equality, it was strenuously declared, was the only basis upon which ministers should consent to negotiate, as it was the only method of procedure which would satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the country. So furious was the storm thus excited against Count Okuma, that one morning a fanatical patriot threw a bomb into the Foreign Minister's carriage, completely wrecking it, and so seriously

injuring the author of the hated scheme that one leg of the unfortunate statesman had to be amputated.

The assassin's bomb, though it failed to kill Count Okuma, effectually exploded his scheme for the revision of the Treaties. He resigned his portfolio as Foreign Minister, and his colleagues immediately dropped the Treaty which had cost so much labour and pains, preferring the drawbacks of extra-territoriality to the dangers of popular excitement which its publication had produced and the deep discontent which its ratification would certainly provoke.

For a brief space after this storm passed away, further attempts at revision of the Treaties were suspended, the problem seeming to gather round it so many difficulties, both of native and foreign origin, as to render it almost insoluble. Some of the foreign advisers in Japanese service suggested at this time that, in default of other measures to obtain the freedom coveted, the method of repudiation should be employed to cut the Gordian knot, Japan issuing a memorandum to the Powers declaring that after the lapse of a specified period she should regard the provisions of the Treaties originally forced upon her as no longer binding. It was urged in support of this course that while some irritation would undoubtedly be created among the Powers for a time by such action, it would, nevertheless, certainly be crowned with success, as it could not be believed that any single Power or any combination of Powers would attempt to coerce Japan and rivet the provisions of the Treaties once more upon her. It is by no means improbable that if at the conclusion of the late war they had still despaired of finding a solution of the problem, the Japanese, flushed with victory over China, might have forced the Government to take some such step. Fortunately by that time a solution of the problem had been found, the honour of which is due to Count Mutsu, one of the ablest Ministers for Foreign Affairs whom the new era in Japan has produced.

In the negotiations which, four or five years after Count Okuma's abortive project, were resumed by Count Mutsu, the object kept in view was a revision of the Treaties on a basis of perfect equality, as urged by the advanced political parties, instead, as in previous cases, of offering concessions which practically limited Japanese jurisdiction. Recognising that Great Britain, possessing the greatest number of subjects in Japan, and having by far the most important interests, was the Power most concerned in the question of revision, and the Power whose action would therefore be followed by others, Count Mutsu addressed himself in the first place to the British Ministry, and with remarkable success. Negotiations were eventually concluded on a basis more favourable to Japan than even the Japanese plenipotentiary could at first have believed possible, for she obtained practically the whole of the concessions claimed. The revised Treaty with Great Britain was signed on the 16th of July,

1894, and ratifications were exchanged at Tokio on the 25th of August of the same year, but it was agreed that the Treaty should not go into effect until at least five years after its signature, and then only after one year's notice had been given by the Japanese Government of its wish that the Treaty should be brought into operation. This article providing for five years' delay was inserted in order that there should be time to bring the other Powers into line with Great Britain, for until this was accomplished the Treaty could be of no effect, as under the most-favoured-nation clause British subjects would still be entitled to all the advantages of extraterritoriality enjoyed by foreigners of other nationality. As was anticipated, however, by Count Mutsu, the other Powers quickly followed England's lead, and, as already stated, France is at the time of writing the only important Power with which negotiations are still unconcluded.

Even the present Treaty, however, favourable as it is to Japan at all points, did not wholly satisfy the aspirations of the Japanese ultra-patriot, who would have demanded the abolition of extraterritoriality without any concession whatever, and was far from reconciled to the prospect of the foreigner's being able to buy, sell, or manufacture outside the limits of the settlements. But the publication of the Treaty being synonymous with the outbreak of the war with China, the agitation that threatened disappeared amid the greater interests of the conflict, and Japanese of all shades of opinion now appear to be well satisfied with their bargain, as they may well be.

For the purposes of this paper it is unnecessary to do more than briefly summarise the salient provisions of the new Treaty between Great Britain and Japan, which in effect differs but slightly from the numerous Treaties of amity and friendship made with other

2 Though apart from the main object of this paper, it may be pointed out that the war with China greatly diminished the complexity of the Treaty Revision problem from the Japanese point of view, and the questions involved in such Revision may even have had some influence in determining that the dispute between the two countries, arising avowedly over other matters, should be referred to the arbitrament of war, as likely to afford a solution of the whole. Japanese statesmen were well aware that none of the Powers would be induced to give up the privileges of extraterritoriality unless the Japanese in return withdrew the restrictions upon foreign residence, and permitted foreigners to reside and trade in the interior. There was no very great objection to this concession from the Government's point of view, but the difficulty in which the Japanese found themselves was that if such a privilege were granted to Europeans and Americans, it must also be extended to the Chinese, whose influx into the country has for years been watched with much anxiety and apprehension. The result of the war solved this part of the problem, as the Japanese no doubt anticipated, by placing them in a position to impose special disabilities upon the Chinese, and to exclude them from the privileges granted to Western nations. Thus we find that in the Commercial Treaty recently concluded between Japan and China, the Chinese are specially excluded from enjoying reciprocal privileges in Japan to those secured by this instrument to Japanese in China.