The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-09-20
JAPANESE CITIZENSHIP.

The new treaty between the United
States and Japan Will take effect on
July II, 1899
Its important provisions regarding
parsons and citizenship are as follows:
in whatever relates to the rights of
residence and travel; to the posses
sion of goods and effects Of any kind;
TO the succession to personal estate,
by will or otherwise. and the disposal
of property of any sort and in any
manner whatsoever which they may
lawfully acquire, the subjects or citi-
zens Of each Contracting Party shall
enjoy in the territories of the other the
same privileges, liberties and rights,
and shall be subject to no higher i'm
posts. or charges in these respects than
native subjects or citizens Of the most
favored nation"
THE subjects or citizens of each Of
the cwo High Contracting Parties shall
have full liberty to enter, travel or re
side in any part of the territories of
the other Contracting Party, and shall
enjoy full and perfect protection for
their persons and property
1T is however understood that the
stipulations contained in this, and the
preceding Article do not in any way
affect the laws, ordinances and regula-
tons with regard to trade, the immi-
grafton of laborers, police and public
security which are in force or which
may hereafter be enacted in either of
the two countries"
There are no provisions whatever in
this treaty, nor in any of the treaties
to which the United States are party,
which refer TO, permit, or regulate
the change of nationality. Each State
has the inherent power to determine
who shall or shall not be entitled to
citizenship.
Even under the most favored ma
ton" clause, which usually appears in
every treaty, it will hardly be claimed
that if the United States, for instance,
admits Englishmen to full citizenship,
it must also, under the favored nation
clause, admit Germans or Frenchmen.
Every nation retains and must retain
the supreme power to arbitrarily de-
termine who shall or shall not be adj
mitted to full citizenship. 1t would be,
it is believed, consistent with any
treaty for the United States to permit
only haired Polish Hebrews to cit
izenship, and exclude all others.
The most favored nation clause
refers only to the commercial and res
idential relations of the citizens of the
different nations contracting under the
treaty.
This treaty with Japan permits Jap
anese subjects TO reside in the United
States with the same rights as the sub
iects of other nations. There is no re-
striction put upon this residence, ex-
cepting as specified
AS the treaty cannot, by it's terms,
affect the laws regulating the immi-
grafton of labor, there seems to be no
doubt about the reserved power of each
party to do as it pIeases in this mat
ter, even to the exclusion of all labor
ers
But one point is not clearly settled
by the treaty Can the United States,
for instance, discriminate specifically
against Japanese labor immigration, as
it does against the Chinese? Can the
Russian Poles be admitted and the
treaty mean that the labor immigrants
from all countries are on an equal foot
ing? Does this treaty place japanese
immigration on precisely the same
footing as European immigration?
1t is presumed that the Japanese
Government would not consent to any
treaty which Disseminated against its
own people, to any greater extent than
other people, especially Europeans, are
Disseminated against, so far as the
right to reside and engage in any occu-
patton is involved.
The right to reside and trade, the
right to immigrate as a mere laborer,
and the right to obtain citizenship are
separate and entirely independent mat
ters. Treaties do not usually go fur
Their than to provide for protection and
equal treatment in trade and residence.
No nation cares to aid its own citizens
in expatriating themselves.
The Japanese treaty seems to confer
on Japanese subjects the right to enter
the country freely for residence and
trade, but subject to the laws of the
United States, whatever they now are
or may be hereafter.
But no discrimination is made
against them by reason of the fact that
they are Asiatics. In this respect, the
treaty differs essentially from the
treaty now existing between the United
States and China.