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Secondly, that the law of nations imposes upon such sovereign the duty to yield its consent to the navigation of its own waters by the inhabitants of any other upstream riparian state.

Thirdly, that where a river and its tributaries afford the sole means of water communication between several riparian states and the ocean by reason of a channel of sufficient depth to be of general commercial value, it becomes the duty of any riparian state bordering the lower waters to consent to the free access to countries upstream by all foreign merchant vessels.

Fourthly, that in the absence of arrangement for international regulation, the territorial sovereign may exercise large discretion in the control of navigation within its own waters.

CHARLES CHENEY HYDE.

BOARD OF EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN JOURNAL

OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

CHARLES NOBLE GREGORY, State University of Iowa.

DAVID J. HILL, Berlin, European Editor.

GEORGE W. KIRCHWEY, Columbia University.

ROBERT LANSING, Watertown, N. Y.

JOHN BASSETT MOORE, Columbia University.
WILLIAM W. MORROW, San Francisco, Cal.
LEO S. ROWE, University of Pennsylvania.
OSCAR S. STRAUS, Washington, D. C.
GEORGE G. WILSON, Brown University.
THEODORE S. WOOLSEY, Yale University.

Editor in Chief

JAMES BROWN SCOTT, George Washington University.

Business Manager

GEORGE A. FINCH, P. O. Box 226, Washington, D. C.

EDITORIAL COMMENT

THE SECRETARY OF STATE AND THE JAPANESE HONORARY COMMERCIAL COMMISSIONERS

On November 3, 1909, Mr. Keishiro Matsui, Chargé d'Affaires of the Japanese Embassy at Washington, celebrated the birthday of the Mikado by an elaborate dinner, to which were invited the Honorary Commercial Commissioners of Japan then in the United States, Secretary Knox, Attorney-General Wickersham, Secretary Ballinger, Commissioner Macfarland, various members of the local board of trade and chamber of commerce, officials of the government and private citizens interested in maintaining the friendly relations and increasing, if possible, the good understanding happily subsisting between the United States and Japan.

The occasion was international in character and the presence of the Secretary of State and his address, which was the principal one of the evening, well-nigh invested it with the importance of an official gathering. As the address of the Secretary of State set forth in happy and concise language the relations between the United States and Japan, the desire of the United States for the advancement not merely of its own interests but those of the Empire of Japan, the closer need of an enlarged. exchange of the products of each, the settlement of controversies that may arise between the countries by the peaceful method of arbitration, it is not inappropriate, indeed it is essential, that it be given in full:

It is my privilege and a great pleasure to welcome you to Washington on behalf of this government, and to express the sincere hope that your journeyings and observations and entertainments in this country have been, and will continue to be, comfortable and profitable and agreeable to you. May health and kindly courtesies and good cheer attend you wherever you go, and may your return voyage across the seas to your own beautiful country be a safe and happy

one.

This is an opportunity of which I gladly avail to speak of the ties which have continued to unite our two nations in amity and essential harmony ever since the days when to American representatives first of all, you opened your doors for the reciprocal exchange of good will and civilization and trade. We have learned from you as you from us. We admire you for all of your national gifts and virtue, and not the least for those qualities in which you differ from us; for the eminent qualities drawn from a long and glorious past through which you must teach and we must learn. Is it your word 'bushido" that expresses the source and inspiration of much of the strength and nobility of the Japanese temperament? Then let western chivalry, which also looks back to lofty origins, learn what eastern "bushido " has to teach.

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Because of these ties between us we sometimes share a common grief and mourning. This country mourns with you the untimely, cruel death of the great Prince Ito, which to those among us like the President, who knew him as a personal friend, was a deep personal loss. He was justly a hero of Japan, a great man, a noble self-sacrificing patriot, a statesman of masterly constructive ability. His career is the history of the new Japan, of the Japan which is now one of the great modern powers of the world. A gifted Englishman of letters has told a fine story of the career and work of Yoshida, whose pupil Prince Ito was, and describing Yoshida's intensity of patriotic virtue has used languag which well describes Ito himself.

He hoped, perhaps, to get the good of other lands without their evil; to enabl Japan to profit by the knowledge of the barbarians and still keep her inviolate with her own arts and virtues.

Is it too much to say that such hopes of the great minds of Japan are in the way of realization? Japan has set herself in that path, and every friendly and generous heart believes she will keep the faith and hopes she will attain her goal.

But you already have and will expect keen yet friendly rivalries, which are only the stimulating competitions of the struggle toward excellence going on everywhere at all times. Commerce, exchange, markets, trades extension — these are the fields in which the friendly commercial rivalry now proceeding between the American and Japanese peoples finds expression. Each, indeed, furnishes a wide market for the other, and beyond their respective boundaries they engage in this friendly trade competition for the various markets of the world, and will continue so to engage. It is doubtless true that trade and trade extension are the foundation in practical life of most advances in civilization. But the great modern movements of accord and good understanding between nations are after all the lofty achievements and the crown of all international relations. The controlling principle of these movements is peaceful and beneficial international intercourse, and the peaceful settlement by arbitration of differences and controversies extending that principle, by friendly diplomacy, as rapidly as possible to embrace an increasing number and variety of disputes, and ultimately by voluntary international compacts making peaceful settlements of all differences compulsory or practically so.

I am confident that you will agree that it is altogether in accordance with the honorable and enlightened attitude both of Japan and the United States and that it should be the aim of true statesmanship, to continue to keep abreast of these beneficent movements in which they have borne so distinguished a part.

Thus the long and unbroken friendship of the United States and Japan, of which your visit and this occasion are such happy symbols, and the laudable common purpose of Japan and the United States to respect each other's rights, and with frankness, patience and good temper to adjust such differences as inevitably arise even between nations of sympathetic and common purposes wi!l be exemplars, which will bear fruit and aid in the gradual realization of the noblest ideals for the unity, concord and prosperity of the world.

In reply to the Secretary of State, Baron Shibusawa gracefully referred to arbitration and the desire of his country not merely to resort to it when necessary, but so to conduct its affairs as to prevent the necessity of resorting to it.

I am in hearty accord with the declaration of the Secretary of State on the great importance of arbitration, but we want to direct the commercial relations of the two countries to the benefit of each nation, that even a resort to arbitration will not be necessary. It is the ambition of Japan so to conduct her commercial competition as to have no misunderstanding with any other nation.

The declaration of the Secretary of State in favor of arbitration, and the desire of the Japanese Commissioner that the conduct of Japan be directed so as to render even the recourse to arbitration unnecessary, may be taken as the authoritative statement of the aims and policies of the two great nations, and it can not be doubted that the declarations themselves and the circumstances under which they were made render them deeply significant and important.

It should be added that the various addresses delivered in English were immediately translated into Japanese and the Japanese addresses were redelivered in English, so that the guests of both nationalities were given an opportunity to understand and appreciate in their own languages the full import of the various addresses. It is a subject of congratulation that the address of the Secretary of State was translated into Japanese and read by Mr. R. S. Miller, chief of the bureau of far eastern affairs of the Department of State.

MEETING OF PRESIDENT TAFT AND PRESIDENT DIAZ ON OCTOBER 16, 1909

In former times the meetings of sovereigns were events of moment and they are popularly supposed to exercise great influence upon the foreign policies of their respective countries. There can be no doubt that the meetings are useful, because an exchange of views by intelligent people upon questions of policy may tend to remove misunderstandings, if they unfortunately exist, and may lead to a more correct understanding of the aims and ambitions of the sovereigns charged with the direction, if not government, of their various countries. It is not easy to discuss difficult subjects by letter, and the peaceful development of the world has called the diplomat into being in order to serve as a mouthpiece of the foreign office; and, although it is maintained that serious questions between nations are really determined by the foreign offices, not by diplomatic agents, it is too clear for argument that the mere presence of a diplomat at his post is important, that personal discussion by him of the policies of his country with the foreign office not only clears up doubts and difficulties, but enables the policy of the home government to be realized if it be based upon reason and justice.

There is no reason to doubt that the personal interviews of sovereigns subserve the same useful purpose and that the frequency of such interviews makes for peace instead of conspiracies against the rights and liberties of foreign nations. The visits of the German Emperor are so frequent that he is popularly and sympathetically known as the Reisekaiser, and in a spirit of banter the present King of Great Britain is known as the "commercial traveler," a designation not wholly undeserved if we consider the changed state of affairs since his accession. due, it would seem, in large measure, to his personal acquaintance with his brother rulers and the frequent exchange of visits with them.

Fortunately, there are no outstanding difficulties between the sister republics of Mexico and the United States, but there can be no doubt

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