PACIFIC MANDATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 5, 6 January 1920, Page 5

PACIFIC MANDATES.

JAPANESE RESERVATION. } POSSIBILITY OF EXCLUSION. RECOGNITION OF EQUALITY. jtg Cable. —Press Association.—Copyright^ (Received 11.30 n.m.) ' PARIS, January 5. ( The Japanese reservation in respect of the manaates is regarded as a further 1 effort to secure racial recognition. It is < anticipated that when the full confer- < ence resumes the Japanese will seek to > secure recognition of equality in the j mandates, Probably they will take the • view that the League of Nations should • not discriminate between the nationalities included in the league on the qucs- > tion of immigration to mandatory tcrri- . tories, and that the legislation of any particular nation holding the mandate* 1 ; should not be allowed to indict disabilities on other parties to the league in the territories for which the league merely delegates its trusteeship. , < It is not considered likely that the British will accede to any * departure from the methods adopted" at the conference, when a. highly-placed member of the British delegation was of opinion that the laws of the country holding the mandate should be applicable to the territory. The Japanese, if unsuccessful now, will carry the demand to the first assembly of the League of Nations. —A. and N.Z. At a meeting of the Supreme Council in Paris on Christmas Kvc projects concerning territories in the Pacific and in Africa, which are to be administered according to the type of mandate C, with administration similar to that of the mandatory nation, were approved by three delegations, only the Japanese reserving their approbation. With reference to the British mandate in the Pacific Islands, Mr. Matsui (the Japanese delegate) objected, on the grounds that if the Australian regime was applied to the islands, Japanese immigration would be barred, as it was in Australia. Japan's position would then be worse than before the war, when, by agreement with Germany, she had full" freedom of immigration to the various German possessions. He added that such a state of things would be paradoxical after Japan's naval effort, which, especially at the outset of the war, assured the policing of the Pacific. Article 22 of the covenant of the League of Nations provides that with mandates of the type of mandate B the mandatary must be responsible for the administration of the territory under conditions which will guarantee freedom of conscience or religion, subject only to the maintenance of public order and morals, the prohibition of abuses such as the slave trado the arms traffic, and the liquot traffic, and the prevention of the establishment of fortifications or ' military and naval bases, and of military training of''the .natives, for other than police purposes, and for'the defence of territory, and will also secure equal ' opportunities for -the trade -and commerce of other members of the league. ' 'Mandate C provides that territories 1 such as South-West Africa and certain ' of the South Pacific islands, owing to J the snarseness of their population, or ' their "small sizc,_or their remoteness ' from the centres of civilisation, or their geographical contiguity to the territory ' of the mandatary, and other circum- * stances, can be best administered under I the laws of the mandatary, as integral ' portions of its territory, subject to the 1 safeguards- above mentioned-' in the ' interests of the indigenous population.