JAPAN AND MEXICO.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2787, 8 May 1911, Page 2

JAPAN AND MEXICO.

The report that Japan was prevented from securing a footing in Mexican territory only by the mobilisation of American trcops on the border seems to have been accepted in many quarters of the United States. The story was told first by a correspondent of the New Yo;k Herald, in a telegram despatched from the Mexican capital. The authorities at Washington, he said, had been

aware for several months that negotiations were proceeding between Japan and Mexico, the former country desiring to secure a coaling station on the Pacific coast and also interests in territory near the Panama Canal. "By mutual consent* of the contracting Governments," he added, "thetreaty between Japan and Mexico is to be terminated. The reason

given for this course of action is the military demonstration by the United States and the demand from Washing- I ton, in which Japan concurs in order to prevent complications with the Americans. Officials who are familiar with the inner workings of the Government are highly elated over the turn of affair's, and predict a speedy return to normal conditions. The Cabinet is gratified by the development of the situation between Japan and the United States." Another correspondent supplied some further statements bearing upon the same report. He said that Japan had wish to colonise the isthmus of Tehuantepec, thus securing a base that would lend some measure of reasonableness to a demand for a voice in the management ot the Panama Canal. Under diplomatic pressure, backed by the movement of troops, the plan had been abandoned and the Tapanese Ambassador at Washington had given an assurance to that effect. The story is certainly sensational, but it seems highly improbable, in view of the fact that Japan could never have imagined that the United States Government would allow the Monroe doctrine to be so flagrantly violated.