711.9421/46
Memorandum by the Third Secretary of Embassy in Japan (Hughes)45
Seven officers of the Embassy and Consulate General dined last evening with seven officers of the Foreign Office—two secretaries and an attaché of the American Affairs Bureau, two secretaries and an attache of the Treaties Bureau, and one secretary of the Eastern Asiatic Bureau. Mr. Koto Matsudaira, secretary of the 2nd Section, Bureau of Treaties talked to me a long time on the subject of a new Consular treaty between the United States and Japan. Investigation of that subject and compilation of data, he said, had been assigned to him, and he wanted to know with which country we had the most modern treaty at present.
I told him that I thought our treaty with Sweden46 was considered very satisfactory, and also the one we made with Germany. He said he had been studying American laws concerning rights and privileges of American Consular Officers, and had a copy of our treaty with Germany. He said he was planning to recommend a treaty similar to the American-German one, which he believed would greatly improve not only the official position but also the personal comfort of consular officers of both countries.
Mr. Matsudaira stated that the Foreign Office was eager to promote a consular treaty, and believed that one would be negotiated soon. He mentioned, however, Japan’s fears that other “most favored nations” would claim for their own officers the privileges granted by the treaty to American consular officers, even though those countries might not reciprocate with regard to Japanese consular officers. He cited Great Britain’s traditional unwillingness to conclude treaties granting other than long-standing privileges to foreign consular officers. I asked him about the possibility of convincing other nations that rights and privileges should be conceded on a basis of reciprocity—a policy which I believed the United States has always followed. He replied that that is what the Foreign Office will try to do.
[Page 842]He asked whether the State Department would have sufficient authority to force the individual states to eliminate taxing Japanese consular officers, in case the treaty concluded provides that neither nation shall tax the consular officers of the other. I replied that I did not believe so, but that the states themselves were usually rather liberal about taxing foreign consuls. The only tax I could think of that they are obliged to pay is the annual automobile license tax, which never amounts to very much. I added that I thought the State Department would in all cases be able to persuade any state not to assess personal property taxes, income taxes or those other than real property taxes, in the case of a career consular officer.
Mr. Matsudaira said that he would like to come to the Embassy occasionally to consult with one of the officers regarding the proposed treaty. I invited him to come at any time, and said that Mr. Crocker47 would probably be the officer to see. He stated that the Treaties Bureau would welcome any suggestions that the Embassy or Consulate General might have relative to special provisions in the projected treaty. He did not say whether Japan is expected to initiate negotiations for the new consular treaty or whether it is merely preparing in advance for an American proposition.
Incidentally, the Vice Consul, Mr. Allison, has informed me that he has conferred with Mr. Matsudaira on the subject of an American-Japanese consular treaty, and at the latter’s request has furnished the Treaties Bureau with a copy of the American consular treaty with Finland.48 Mr. Allison stated that Mr. Matsudaira told him the committee preparing the ground-work to be used in future negotiations had taken the German-American Consular Treaty of 1923 as a model.
Note: I made it clear to Mr. Matsudaira during our conversation that the Embassy was in no position to indicate what the attitude of the American Government would be toward a Consular convention.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in Japan in his despatch No. 1059, November 16; received December 1.↩
- Signed at Washington, June 1, 1910, Foreign Relations, 1911, p. 723; cf. correspondence concerning proposed new treaty, ibid., 1927, vol. iii, pp. 740 ff.↩
- Edward S. Crocker, Second Secretary of Embassy in Japan.↩
- Signed February 13, 1934; see vol. ii, pp. 134 ff.↩