The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-07-04
TO PRESERVE PEACE
OF THE FAR EAST IS.
AIMS OF ALLIANCE.
Not Intended as Instrument of
Hostility or Defense Against
The United States.
FORMAL STATEMENT OF
JAPANESE AMBASSADOR
Negotiations for Renewal of the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Have Not Begun.
t5y The Associated Press,


WASHINGTON, July 3.---Baron Shide-
hara. the Japanese ambassador, in a for
NAL statement today discussing the Ang-
lo-Japanese alliance, declared that ''by
no stretch of the imagination can it be
honestly stated that the alliance was
ever designed or remotely intended as
an instrument of hostility or even defense
against the United States
Negotiations looking to the renewal
of the Anglo-Japanese alliance have not
yet begun said the statement. I'm the
meantime. a campaign seems to be ac-
lively at work misrepresenting the pos
sible effect of the alliance upon the United
States. BY no stretch of the imagination
can it be honestly stated that the al
lance was ever designed or remotely in
tended as an instrument of hostility or
even of defense against the United States.
THE Anglo Japanese alliance. in its
history for nearly twenty years has twice
been renewed. In each case the funda-
mental policy underlying it has remained
unchanged. 1t aims permanently to pre-
serve and to consolidate the general peace
of the Far-East. The original agreement
of 1902 in line with that policy, was cal
culated to localize any war which might
be forced upon either contracting party
security. It was made when China was
under menace of foreign aggression and
the United States, showing the utmost
friendliness toward both parties to the
alliance, viewed the compact with SYM
pathy and approval.
I'm 1905. when the alliance was re-
newed and arrangements made to meet
the changed conditions that followed the
Russo-Japanese war, no thought occurred
to the statesmen of either country that
the United States might become a po-
tential enemy of either, and for that rea-
son and that alone, no provision was in
serted taking so remote a contingency
into consideration.
1.-THE alliance was again revised in 1911
and article " of the agreement contains
the following provision:
Should either high contracting party
conclude treaty of general arbitration
with a third power, it is agreed that
nothing in this agreement shall entail
upon such contracting party on abliga-
tion to go to war with the power with
whom such treaty of arbitration is in
force
This provision, in it's relation to the
United States has often been made the
subject of conflicting interpretations. To
a practical mind, however, the circum
stances which led up to it's inclusion
should at once serve to remove all doubt
its significance. The idea of
revising the alliance in 1911 was con-
ceived primarily with the object Of IA
the negotiations which We're
known to be then in progress between
London and Washington for the conclu-
sion of a general arbitration treaty. Nei-
ther Japan nor Great Britain has ever
contemplated, under the alliance any
casus feoderis prejudical or inimical to
the interest of the United States; and
any plan designed to remove the pos
sibility of an armed conflict between the
United States and Great Britain was of
course agreeable to Japan. 1t was in
pursuance of this policy that the quoted
provision of article " was adopted.
1.-THE same policy inspires Japan as
strongly today as ever before. 1t has not
Continued on Page Six.)