Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1902

Mr. Buck to Mr. Hay.

United States Legation,
Tokyo, November 29, 1901.

No. 602.]

Sir:* * * I have the honor to inclose a copy of the note of the minister for foreign affairs of this date, in reply to my note to him of the 21st instant, a copy of which accompanied my dispatch of the 22d instant.

In a conversation with the minister to-day, before the receipt of his note, he assured me that in event, though improbable, that the Japanese Government should at any time in the future change its views and find that taxes had erroneously been paid, they would be refunded, and I had supposed his reply to my note would so state, which it fails to do, though the law, I understand, in such cases requires repayment.

The attitude assumed by the representatives of Great Britain, France, and Germany in opposition to the “house tax,” so called, is still adhered to notwithstanding the decision of the Government, and many of their people subject to the tax in Yokohama, as also some of our people, still refuse payment. The representatives of those countries still protesting against the tax has caused a stronger feeling of opposition among some American leaseholders in that city than has heretofore been manifested, though there are a portion of our people who take a different view—that the tax is not violative of treaty provisions—and who have willingly paid the tax. No protests or other manifestations of opposition to the position taken by the Japanese Government, that I am aware of, have been made by our people in Nagasaki, Kobe, or Tokyo, the only cities where there were foreign settlements, though some persons in Tokyo have expressed to me their opinion that the tax was unjust.

I have, etc.,

A. E. Buck.

[Inclosure.—Translation.]

The Japanese minister for foreign affairs to Mr. Buck.

Department of Foreign Affairs,
Tokyo, November 29, 1901.

Mr. Minister: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note of the 21st instant which, having in view the declaration contained in my note of the 21st of October on the subject of the taxation of buildings erected on land held by foreigners under leases in perpetuity in the former foreign settlements, you state that while you have hitherto taken no position in behalf of your Government in opposition to the tax in question you deem it proper, under the circumstances, to reserve for citizens of the United States who pay such tax rights of reimbursement, should the Imperial Government come to the conclusion that the tax had been wrongfully or erroneously levied.

While the Imperial Government are not prepared to admit the existence of any reason for modifying to any extent the position assumed by them in reference to the question, I have no hesitation in assuring your excellency that there shall be no discrimination between the citizens of the United States and the subjects or citizens of any other interested power in respect to the question of house tax levied on buildings erected on land leased in perpetuity in the former foreign settlements.

I avail, etc.,

Komura Jutaro,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.