The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ABR INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1924. A STRANGE AGREEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 285, 1 December 1924, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ABR INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1924. A STRANGE AGREEMENT.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the tcrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that we can do.

It is a strange agreement that, according to a cable message we publish today, Japan has made with Mexico. Each Covernmcnt agrees not to hold the other responsible for damage suffered owing to revolutions. The risk in Mexico, where revolution is endemic, is much greater than in Japan. nnd how many Mexicans are there iv Japan to suffei loss if the swelling forces of democracy take up arms? This is an important agreement and forms a precedent which will be eagerly affirmed and supported by the different Latin-Ameri-can countries. Hitherto it has been held that foreign countries could be held responsible for damage suffered by nationals of other countries during revolutions. According to the principles of international law, every country is responsible for the maintenance of law and order within its own borders. A revolution outbreak docs not absolve it from such responsibility. The question, however, is a very complicated one, and one which has caused much trouble to the British Government. British subjects were at one time much more effectively protected against the excesses of foreign revolutionists than they are to-day. There has been a notable weakening on the part of the British Foreign Office in dealing with such cases. Thirty years ago, British subjects resident in South America knew that they could rely on the protection of their consuls if their property was seized or their lives endangered, either by the governments or the revolutionists in those countries. To-day the case is very different. In Mexico itself many British subjects have been plundered, expelled and even killed, without any punishment or compensation being exacted. So much was British authority respected at one time that revolutionary agents were careful to respect foreign property, specially that of British subjects. The British Government for some timo has shown a great reluctance to interfere in the internal affairs of the republics of Latin-America. The matter is complicated by the everwidening interpretation and application of the Monroe Doctrine, in virtue of which the American Government now claims to exercise a sort of protectorate over all the countries of Latin-America. Perhaps there would be no objection to this, in fact it would be rather an advantage if the United States, while claiming such rights, exercised an effective police control over those recalcitrant states. Unfortunately, however, the American Government takes a lenient view of the situation, and has done little in the way of protecting even its own citizens from thb outrages'which are so prevalent during times of revolution. Another concession made by Japan in the new treaty is the right given to Mexico to decide to what extent Japanese immigration is desirable. In other words, the Mexican Government is conceded the full right to restrict or altogether prohibit Japanese immigration whenever such a course is found convenient. This concession, which was so indignantly denied to the* United States, has now been freely accorded to Mexico. These arc two notable concessions, both of them involving an important precedent. There may be other "graceful concessions" in the treaty, but even if there are no more, it is certain that Japan would not have made such humiliating concessions without receiving in return a very important "quid pro quo." What equivalent has been received in return by Japan is not stated, but we may take it for granted that Japanese diplomacy has given another instance of its proverbial astuteness.