Gilpin observer., 1911-02-23
DESIGNED TO REPLACE THAT
OF 1894 AFFECTING I'M
MIGRATION.
OPPOSITION EXPECTED
EITHER COUNTRY MAY DE-
NoUNCE TREATY AT END
OF SIX MONTHS.

Wasnington.-The text of a new
treaty with Japan, designed to replace
that of 1894 and drawn with the
special design of eliminating the re-
strictions upon immigration contracted
In that treaty, has been laid before
the Senate by President Taft.
The essential difference between the
proposed treaty and the existing con-
Vention is said to be that it omits all
reference to all such restrictions and
leaves to the national honor of Japan
the enforcement at her own ports of
the limitations upon emigration from
Japan now expressly placed upon i'm
migration into the United States.
The document is said to provide thai
either country may denounce the
treaty at the end of six months il It
fails to operate as expected.
Because it embodies this radical de-
parture from the existing treaty and
touches the question of the deepest i'm.
portance and interest to the Pacific
slope, the injection of this convention
into the closing hours of the Sixty-f first
Congress created a sensation.
That the new treaty will encounter
opposition seems certain, for even if it
should be speedily reported to the
Senate from the committee without
serious controversy within the COM
mitee room, the Western senators are
expected to insist upon opportunity for
debate which will develop the full ex.
tent of their opposition to the treaty.
Unlike matters of ordinary legisla
tion, failure of the Senate to act upon
the treaty during the remainder of this
session of Congress would not of itself
extinguish it's vitality, which could be
kept indefinitely alive in the executive
any convenient time.
This new treaty is one of trade and
commerce." intended to replace the
treaty of 1894, negotiated by the late
Secretary Gresham and Baron Kurino,
then Japanese minister to the United
States. That treaty is most compre.
hensive document, comprising twenty
articles, dealing with trade, commerce
and navigation, rights of dwelling, i'm,
port and export duties, tonnage dues.
port regulations, desertions, shipping
rights, consular functions, and othe-
subjects.
1t has already become antiquated
mainly because of the rapid advance
of Japansese in ways of civilization.
1t was drawn simultaneously with sew
eral other Japanese treaties of similar
scope negotiated with all the grea.
powers. But unlike the others, this
particular treaty was not promptly rat
flied and did not go into effect until
about year after the others We're in
force.
Japan has already negotiated trea-
ties to replace those of the nineties
with nearly all of the powers except
the United States. If our government
were to insist upon its rights, the eX.
listing treaty could be continued In
force until July II, 1912.
The radical difference between this
new treaty and the one low in force
and the one which may prove obnox.
ious to the Western senators is under
stood to be the omission of any ref
erence to the immigration question.
This little incident-the difference
of year in the expiration of the old
treaties-is proving very embarrassing
to the Japanese in developing a fisca,
policy. AS all of the new treaties con.
tanned the favored nation clause, the
Japanese government would be obliged
to concede to the nations other than
the United States all of the privileges
which America now enjoys under the
treaty of 1894.