The Dominion WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1921. FRIENDSHIP WITH JAPAN

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 122, 16 February 1921, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1921. FRIENDSHIP WITH JAPAN

One of the most responsible duties which will devolve upon Mr. AlASsey when he attends the Imperial Conference a few months hence is that of acting for the Dominion in the matter of renewing or dealing in some other way with the AngloJapanese Treaty. In existing circumstances, New Zealand and othei countries of the Empire arc hound to concede their representatives a wide discretion in dealing with this great question, but any action taken certainly ought to be based on the actual trend of public opinion and sentiment here and in other parts of the Empire and not on the extreme views sometimes expressed by individual citizens of the Dominions. There seems to be an unfortunate tendency on the part of some oversea Britons when they travel abroad to adopt an attitude of irreconcilable antagonism towards the Japanese and other Asiatic races—an attitude which is very far from accurately reflecting the ruling trend of public sentiment in the countries from which these self-appointed spokesmen hail. So far as this country is concerned it is certainly not true that the general Iv accepted ideal of a white New Zealand—the widespread determination to maintain racial purity—implies or need imply any feeling of hostility towards the people of Asiatic countries. In order to give effect to this determination we arc bound to impose restrictons on Asiatic immigration, but this by no means excludes the possibility'of meeting Asiatic races on fair and even terms. It is open to Asiatic nations to impose the sa.mc restrictions on white immigration as arc imposed here and in other countries on the immigration of Asiatics, and there does not seem to be any reason why friendly reciprocal relations should, not be developed and broadened on this basis. It is impossible to anticipate the exact shape in which the question of dealing with the Anglo-Japanese nact will present itself when the Imperial representatives assemble in June. As some Japanese commentators have readily declared, an agreement of wider scope, including the United States as well as the British Empire and Japan, would be preferable to the present Treaty, and would better safeguard peace in the Pacific. Should such an agreement prove to be. at present unattainable, however, it may bo. hoped at least that nothing will be done at the Imperial Conference which would in any way impair the existing friendship bet,ween the British nation and the Japanese. Treaties, at this stage in the world’s history, arc of somewhat uncertain value, but the need was never greater of carefully fostering friendship between nations, and some of those who arc best entitled to speak with authority on the subject arc most emphatic in stating that the trend of public sentinv-nt in Japan decidedly favours the development of international friendship. Some interesting additions to other evidence on this point were made by Ml?. Charles Francis, an official of the United States Department of Labour, who arrived in Australia last, week after making an extended visit tn Japan. Sent to that country bv his Department to investigate Labour conditions. Ma. Francis enjoyed excellent facilities for observation; his investigations appear to have covered a wide, field, and ho met and conversed with the principal members cU the Japanese Government. His impressions arc summed up in the assertion that there is no justification _ for "the scare stories published in the newspapers,” and that the feeling towards America, in spite of the recent and still unsettled controversy over the. Californian legislation, was most friendly. Except that the Japanese asked that their rights should be respected in California, they found no fault with what America was doing. There is, of course, a very plain distinction between the imposition of harassing conditions on the Japanese already resident in the United States and restrictions on further immigration. Mr. Francis was as much impressed by the peaceful spirit manifested in Japan as by the wonderful strides the country has made in commercial, industrial, and educational development. He noted that in nearly all the schools English was being taught. "It was apparently realised that a knowledge of English was the chief aid to commercial development and a better understanding with the

English-speaking races.” Even if this picture is in some respects incomplete it probably gives at least as accurate an idea of ruling tendencies in Japan as the reports which depict the country as dominated by militarists filled with the lust of conquest. No doubt the course of national development in Japan will bo influenced in a most important degree by' her relations with the English-speaking races, and it is certainly not in the interests of these races that they should allow the restrictions necessarily imposed on migration to become the foundation of a spirit of unreasonable antagonism towards the Japanese and other Asiatic peoples. The aim should be instead to take every available means of promoting a friendly understanding, riot only by dealing with migration on a basis of reciprocity, but in inviting Japan to co-operate on a broader basis in consolidating international peace. She has made it particularly clear that she does not feel free to take the initiative in promoting a limitation of naval armaments in the Pacific, but if they make good use of their opportunities at the forthcoming conference, the British Imperial representatives may he able to do something to pave the way for co-operation on these lines. In any case they undoubtedly ought to aim at strengthening and confirming the present friendly relations with Japan rather than to approach the question in a spirit of antagonism.