Arizona republican., 1920-11-14
JAP PANESE vICE:
 MINISTER SAYS ALIEN LAND LAW .|S TO BE OPPOSED
Relates Progress Of Anti Jap Movement In Cali fornia To Show Country men Are Discriminated Against

TOXIC. Nov. 13.-At a meeting of te political affairs investigation com mittee of the Seiyukai party yesterday. the vice minister of foreign affairs. Mir. Hanihara, who was present by special request. offered an explanation as to the progress of the California question.
 The vice minister said the land own ership law in California was proThu- gated in 1913. Prior to the enactment of the law, MT Bryan, the then secre tary of state visited California in per son and made an effort on behalf of the Japanese residents there to get the legislation shelved. although unfor- tunately his endeavors were not suo- cessful
 With regard to the present move nent in California directed against Japanese interests. the vice minister proceeded, the Washington govern ment was making sincere and earnest efforts for an amicable settlement or the situation. He therefore believed that some good result would attend the endeavors of the American authorities
 MT. Kokubo, a Seiyukai member, in putting a question to the vice minister, said that at the time of the promulga tion of the land ownership law in Call fornia in 1913, Viscount Makino, the then foreign minister. desired to obtain from the American government guar antee against the recurrence of simil- lar movement and opened negotiations with the Washington authorities. Be- fore these negotiations were brought to an end the Okuma ministry was formed, with Viscount Kato, the presi- dent of the Kenseikai. as foreign min ister. He (Adr. Kokubo) visited Wis count Kato at the time. as represent ing the Seiyukai. and asked what had become of the negotiations with the American government. The reply given by the foreign minister was that he had decided to drop the negotia- tions. Viscount Kato was succeeded by viscount Jshii later and MT. Kobuko again formulated a similar question, and the same reply was given by Vis- count Kato was elicited
 In the opinion of MT. Kokubo. if the negotiations which were opened by Viscount Makino had been taken up l by his successor and the guarantee had been exacted from the American gov ernment, the present anti-Japanese question might not have arisen. The Seiyukai member desired to have the vice minister's view upon the point raised
 In reply, Mr. Hanihara said that | lI1dl SUCH d Bu<AAdiiltO adA been obtained from the United States l he did not think it was effective in preventing altogether the present movement, seeing that Japan had to deal with people who had made nc scruple about introducing a land bill which was manifestly in contravention of the American constitution
 Doctor Masao said that so far as its form was concerned the bill under l discussion was so drafted that land
 ownership and lease hold should be
 denied the nationals who could not
 acquire American citizenship, care
 fully avoiding the mention of Japanese
 against whom the bill was actually
 directed. If. therefore. the Japanese
 could acquire the right of naturaliza-
 tion in the United States the proposed
 legislation would be completely under
 mined. Although there was a judicial
 precedent against Chinese becoming
 naturalized in America there was none
 in the case of Japanese. In order to
 settle the question a Japanese resident in that country, named Ozawa- insti-
 tuted law suit a few years ago and the case was still pending in the court.
 One way to settle the land ownership
 question was to base Japan's conten-
 tion on the most favorable nation
 clause. A point of note in connection , with the treaty was that 1t embodied q treaty of commerce and navigation
 and that it did not in any way touch l the question of owning land for agri- , cultural purposes. On this ground some people predicted a difficulty in settling the dispute through the in