Mr. Hoshi to Mr. Sherman.
Washington, June 4, 1897.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 2d instant, in which you acquaint me with your views respecting the recent legislation of Japan granting a bounty to the exportation of silk by Japanese subjects and the relation of that matter to our pending treaty engagements.
In reply, I beg to state that after the conversation upon the subject to which you allude I informed the Imperial Government of what you had said to me, and that I am now in receipt of an answer from His Imperial Majesty’s minister for foreign affairs, explaining the object of the law in question and the construction placed upon it by the Imperial Government.
Count Okuma states that there appears to be some misapprehension on your part regarding the nature and object of the law. In the first place, its pro visions are only applicable to raw silk exported in quantities of over 500 catties weight. In the next place, the amount of the bounty and the quality of the silk to which it shall be applicable are to be determined by an Imperial ordinance to be hereafter promulgated. Inasmuch as the actual object of the law is to improve the quality of the silk exported from Japan, it necessarily follows that, under the operation of the foregoing provisions, the bounty will be limited to the highest grades, and that, consequently, only a comparatively small part of the amount exported will enjoy its benefits.
Count Okuma directs me to state in the frankest terms that the law was not intended in any sense for discrimination against the subjects and citizens of foreign powers interested in the exportation of raw silk from Japan. Since, however, penalties must necessarily form a part of the law, and since it would be impossible to enforce those penalties against foreigners while consular jurisdiction continues to exist, the only alternative was to limit the application of the law to Japanese subjects. But the Imperial Government have no hesitation in admitting [Page 445] that, with the abolition of consular jurisdiction and the enforcement of the new treaties, that is to say, after the 17th day of July, 1899, this law, if continued in force, will have to be made applicable to the citizens and subjects of the treaty powers equally with Japanese subjects.
Taking note of your statement that during the period between the date when the law goes into effect and the enforcement of the new treaty great injury may be inflicted upon the silk trade, I beg to express the hope that you will find reason in what I have already said concerning the object and scope of the law to change this opinion. As I have had the honor to state, the law is intended to improve the quality of silk exported from Japan by offering a premium upon the best processes of production and manufacture. And as before remarked, it is probable that in actual operation the bounties provided by the law will only apply to the highest grades of silk, and to those in comparatively small quantities. Hence it can hardly be expected that the law will exercise a depressing influence upon the silk trade in general. Nothing, I can assure you in the most positive terms, Mr. Secretary, could be further from the intention of the Imperial Government than that, and nothing more remote from their purpose than a desire to place at a disadvantage American interests in a trade which, as you truly remark, has proved of mutual benefit to Japan and the United States. On the contrary, it is their earnest wish to extend and to improve that trade, and that was the chief reason for the enactment of the law now under consideration. Nothing in that law, I beg to repeat, was intended to be detrimental to American interests, and I feel assured that experience will demonstrate that none of its provisions are thus prejudicial even indirectly.
Accept, etc.,