Office of the Historian

Treaty Series No. 591.]

By the President of the United States of America.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas an Agreement between the United States of America and the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan extending, for a further period of five years, the arbitration convention concluded between them on May 5, 1908, was concluded and signed by their respective Plenipotentiaries at Washington, on the twenty-eighth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, the original of which Agreement, being in the English and Japanese languages, is word for word as follows:

The Government of the United States of America and the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, being desirous of extending the period of five years during which the Arbitration Convention concluded between them on May 5, 1908, is to remain in force, which period is about to expire, have authorized the undersigned, to wit: The Honorable William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State of the United States, and Viscount Sutemi Chinda, His Majesty’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Washington, to conclude the following agreement:

Article I.

The Convention of Arbitration of May 5, 1908, between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, the duration of which by Article III thereof was fixed at a period of five years from the date of the exchange of ratifications, which period will terminate on August 24, 1913, is hereby extended and continued in force for a further period of five years from August 24, 1913.

Article II.

The present Agreement shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, and it [Page 425] shall become effective upon the date of the exchange of ratifications, which shall take place at Tokyo as soon as possible.

Done in duplicate at Washington, this 28th day of June, one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, corresponding to the 28th day of the sixth month of the second year of Taisho.

[seal.] William Jennings Bryan
[seal.] S. Chinda.

And whereas the said Agreement has been duly ratified on both parts, and the ratifications of the two Governments were exchanged in the City of Tokyo, on the twenty-third day of May, one thousand nine hundred and fourteen;

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, have caused the said Agreement to be made public, to the end that the same and every article and clause thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[seal.] Done at the City of Washington this twenty-sixth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-eighth.

Woodrow Wilson
.

By the President:
W. J. Bryan
Secretary of State.

memorandum.

Arbitration Agreement between United States and Japan, signed June 28, 1918, extending the duration of the Arbitration Convention of May 5, 1908.

The Department of State acknowledges the receipt of the Memorandum of the Japanese Embassy, dated May 8, 1914, stating that:

  • “1. The Japanese Embassy construes Article I to mean that the Arbitration Convention of May 5, 1908, terminated at the end of the 23rd day of August, 1913, and that the term of its extension was to commence from the 24th day of the same month, that is, from after midnight of the aforesaid 23rd day.
  • 2. Despite the provision in Article II to the effect that the Extension Agreement shall become effective upon the date of the exchange of ratifications, the United States Government proposes, according to the understanding of the Japanese Embassy, to render the Agreement retrospective in so far as to make it operative on and from August 24, 1913 as provided in Article I above referred to.”

The Department of State concurs in the views of the Japanese Embassy, as stated above, regarding the termination of the Arbitration [Page 426] Convention of May 5, 1908, and the retroactivity of the Agreement signed June 28, 1913.

Department of State,
May 9, 1914.