TROUBLE LOOMING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16491, 5 March 1914, Page 6

TROUBLE LOOMING.

Littee has been heard lately of the Japanese-American dispute with regard to California’s immigration law, but a settlement 6eems as far off as ever it was. The position really is much more serious than tho brief cablegrams have suggested it to be. The Californian Legislature, asserting the rights it undoubtedly possesses under the United States Constitution, refused to listen to Mr Bryan’s advice and passed the anti-Japanese law last year. The law is now in force and is operating, as it was intended to do, in a way highly inimical to the interests of Japanese settlors and immigrants. The Japanese Government informed Mr Bryan when the law was under discussion that California’s proposals violated rights secured to Japan by treaty. The American Secretary of State made a tactful reply that did not disguise his inability to redress the Japanese grievance, and the Government at Tokio sent a second protest even more emphatic than tho first. Then Mr Bryan explained frankly that the United States Government could not dictate to California and the rulers of Japan retorted with an emphatic, demand for the recognition of treaty rights. That was last August, and Mr Bryan had not sent any reply at all to tho third Japanese Note up to the end of January. Baron Malcino, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, mentioned this delay in the Japanese Diet a few weeks ago and said that the attitude of the United States Government had been unsatisfactory and that he recognised “ the necessity of elaborating other plans for the solution of the difficulty.” The pride of the Japanese nation has been touched very deeply by California’s discriminatory laws, and the authorities in Tokio apparently are determined not to accept the affront meekly. There is no need to assume they will proceed to ’extremes in demanding what they consider to be their rights, but they probably will keep the question open and as long as they do that the relations between Japan and the United States will be strained. Some untoward incident on one side of the Pacific or tho other might precipitate a very grave crisis.