As is known from the telegram from Yokohama which we published last week, a great public meeting was held at that port on the 11th to protest against the conclusion of a revised treaty with Japan, by which extraterritoriality should be immediately and unconditionally abolished throughout: the Japanese empire, except at the treaty ports, and in the treaty ports at the end of five years. The attendance at the meeting is variously estimated at three to four hundred persons, of all nationalities. It was originally intended to confine the meeting to British subjects, because it was understood that the Britis Foreign Office was on the point of signing the obnoxious treaty but at the request of residents of other nationalities, the meeting was made g|% general one, and the protest was consequently very much strengthened. The "ce-operative policy" no longer exists among the Foreign Ministers at Tokio, und the various governments have shown some disposition of late years to "cut under" each other, in order to get the favour of Japan; it is therefore very satisfactory to see that this jealous disposition does not extend to the foreign residents in Yokohama.
The partial list of those present at the meeting shows that it was attended by almost all the leading members of the community, who, whatever the differing views they must necessarily take of the Japanese, the greater or less confidence that they have in the administration of justice in Japan, are unanimous in declaring, as will be seen in the resolutions which we print in another column, that the time has not yet arrived when the persons and property of foreigners in Japan can be unconditionally and safely subjected to the jurisdiction of Japanese tribunals. There can be no question that the meeting was thoroughly representative, for the committee it elected to carry out its objects comprises members of thirty-two firms doing business in Yokohama, com-3 prising most of the prominent houses of the place, and five representatives of the private and professional classes, and it includes subjects or citizens of nine out of the sixteen treaty powers. The countries unrepresented on the committee muster only 85 out of the 4,542 foreigners in Yokohama, so that it would be hard to appoint a more thoroughly representative body.
Tt is a great misfortune for Yokohama that it is generally believed that its leading journal, the Mail, is not an independent paper. It is impossible not to admire and enjoy its editorial writing, but this admiration and enjoyment are qualified by the fear that the Bail is constrained to write what will be pleasing to the Japanese government, and that it is not therefore what it should be, the representative of foreign public opinion, We are assured that there was good reason for the meeting to be called when we find thie Mai? writing before it had occurred "Tt is, we think, a matter for éon-gratulation that British residents are adopting this course, since the public will now be placed in possession of a true statement of their views, in lieu of the parodies hitherto put forward by their supposed champions. 'There is much to be urged in' support of those who regard with apprehension the abolition of Consular Jurisdiction, and if their arguments are advanced' moderately and clearly, as we do not: doubt will be the case, it is certain that the fullest possible consideration will be given to them by the Japanese Government."
It is at first sight a disappointment that the speakers at the meeting did not give their reasons for regarding with apprehension the abolition of consular jurisdiction. "Mr. "Lowder, the mover of the first resolution, contented himself with safing™'that as the opinion was unanimously held, it was unnecessary for him to urge arguments to justify it. " Werhave arrived at it", he said, "from. knowledge and from experience which is common to every individual in this room, and common to all of us as a community." We can understand on reflection that if Mr. Lowder had had to give' reasons, they must have been very unpalatable to the Japanese, they must. have included a want of confidence in the knowledge, if not the integrity, of Japanese toujrts of justice, and it was therefore as well to take them as read. Hitherto the Japanese themselves in the revised treaties that they have proposed for acceptance have consented to: safeguard the rights of foreigners by the 'émployment. of foreign judges, and. the Yokohama community only last year expressed their approval' of. treaty revision with these safeguards. The latest proposition of the Japanese was that four foreign judges should"be appointed to the Court of Appeal This was considered by Lord Salisbury to be an insufficient protection to British interests, while even this was too much for Japanese pride, and the negotiations for treaty revision were broken off, our statement that they were abandoned being mercilessly ridiculed at the time by the Afail. It is somewhat astonish-ug now that Lord Salisbury should be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.