Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/249

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DIPLOMACY
211

But again an unexpected hindrance occurred. A correspondent of the London Times reported from here on the 11th of March, 1889, the substance of the new treaty, which appeared in the number of the 19th of April, and was distributed amongst its Japanese readers about this time. It was as follows:[1]

‘Custom Tariff.

‘As regards import duties, the Custom tariffs already agreed upon in the Conference between 1885–1887 (Count Inouye’s Conference) were to be adopted.

‘Extraterritorial Jurisdiction.

‘1. After a certain date, before the opening of the Imperial Diet in 1890, the foreigners in Japan shall be granted the right of freely travelling, trading, dwelling, or possessing property in any part of the Japanese Empire outside the limits of the settlements fixed by the old treaties; but the same foreigners will be subjected to the jurisdiction of Japan in matters arising from the exercise of that right.

‘2. The present institution of settlement and Consular jurisdiction shall be kept up for a certain number of years after the date mentioned in 1 for the benefit of those that prefer to live in them, but after the expiration of these years such institution shall be abolished entirely.

‘3. The following point shall be agreed upon by a Diplomatic Note. Before opening up the country, as stipulated in 1, a certain number of foreign jurists shall be nominated judges of the Supreme Court. They are to partake in the reversal of the civil cases to the value of 100 yen or more, and in that of all criminal cases. Whenever a foreigner figures as one of the contending parties, the absolute majority of the judges concerned shall be foreigners. This arrangement is to continue for ten years, after which Japan acquires unlimited right of jurisdiction.

‘4. The following point is also to be promised by a Diplomatic Note. In order to carry out point 2, a new civil code shall be promulgated and put into execution three years before the abolition of the settlements and the Consular jurisdiction, and its authentic English translation published a year and a half before the same date.’

As soon as the secret was thus divulged, great opposition again rose against the new form of revision, both in and out of the Government.[2] The majority of the Genro-in (old Senate) and of the Privy Council were opposed to it, and especially weighty was the opposition of Marquis Ito and Count Inouye, the former because he thought the employment of foreign judges in the Supreme Court not in conformity with the spirit of the new Constitution, and the latter because the very same arrangement was the cause by which his own project of revision had been frustrated two years ago. In the Cabinet Council held

  1. ↑ This is a retranslation from a Japanese translation.
  2. ↑ Count Okuma did not communicate the substance of his revision project to his colleagues, because treaty revision was a matter commissioned by the Emperor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs alone, and not to the Cabinet in general.
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