The San Francisco call., 1897-06-21
JAPAN IS, NOT IN
FRIENDLY MOOD
Remarks Attributed to
Sherman Cause a
Protest.
Strongly Worded Note With
Regard to the Annexa-
ton Scheme.
Questions Of Rights and Ind EN- nifty.
Importance of Cable to the
Islands.

WASHINGTON, D. c., June 20-Not-
withstanding denials the Washington
Times asserts that Secretary Sherman will
soon retire,
The statements attributed to Secretary
Sherman, relative to the conduct of the
Japanese as an excuse for his alleged
change of front on the subject of Hawaiian
annexation, has not tended TO put the rep
resentatives of that power in any too
friendly an attitude toward the annexa-
ton of those islands TO the United States.
The protest of the Japanese has been filed
with the State Department. 1t is diplo-
matieally denied that it is protest in the
strict Interpretation of the word, but 1t Is
a very strongly worded note in which
that Government sets forth the fact that
she hopes her rights will be protected by
this Government in toe absorption of the
islands. That note will be sent to the
Senate as secret document tor use in the
consideration of the treaty.
While the Japanese officials profess
nothing but the most friendly feeling for
this Government, they do not so diplo-
maticaly conceal their true feelings to-
ward the Hawaiians. 1t is now an open
secret that several of the European
powers have had cognizance all the time
that this annexation proposition was In
contem plation. The Japanese, however,
who have more of their citizens on the
islands than any other nationality, were
ignored and knew nothing of IL un IL the
treaty was signed. They believe they
should have been consulted IN the matter,
or at least, notified.
The relations between the two Govern
ments were, however, so strained that the
Hawaiians reasoned, and justly, that it
would not do to intimate to the Japanese
the step the Hawaiian Government was
about to take. 1t might have eeipitated
at once condition on the islands very
similar to that which is sought 10 be
avoided by this policy OF annexation.
The Hawaiians were too tightly caught
in the clutches of the Japanese power to
give that Government any hint of their
efforts 10 escape the meshes that were
gathering about them. l. was for this
reason that Japan was kept in the dark,
and it is natural that that Government
should feel itself aggrieved and sighted.
The Japanese Government will continue
10 press it's demands for an indemnity for
the acts of the Hawaiian Government
tain immigrants who landed on the
islands, but the Hawaiians, made boIder
by the first steps looking to annexation,
will not make that rapid progress in these
negotiations she might have been induced
TO make few weeks earlier. 1t is quite
prooa BILE that this question will remain
unsettled up to the time of the annexa-
tion, and that whatever indemnity should
ho NIL he
United States.
Senators who have been giving the SUBJ
iect some attention say that it is more
than certain that Japan will have cause
to complain of the United States if Japan
clings to the idea that under her treaty
rights with Hawaii she has perpetual
privileges which cannot be set aside. The
annexation of a country to another
vitiates all treaties and puts the annexed
country before the world on identicaily
the same plane as that OF the country TO
which 1t is annexed. Necessarily any and
all treaties, and especially those with
Japan, will be nullified, and Hawaiian
territory and all the rights and privileg es
therein will be controlled by existing
treaties between this Government and
those that have had previous relations
with Hawaii
The idea of Japan holding a perpet ual
right OF any kind would not be enter
tanned by this Government, and it is
doubtful If Japan presses that point very
strongly.
One OF the things that will go hand in
hand with annexation wilt be the con-
slruction of cable to the islands. "T his
will certainly be DONE" said Senator
Davis, land should have been done some
time ago. 1t will be an i'm Derative nece.-
sity with The islands belonging to us.
Thev are 2000 miles away and we could
hardly depend upon the steamers for our
news from those islands. A cable is nee
essary anyhow, and will be constructed in
course ot time"