ya We anticipate that the action of the Japanese Minister in Peking in affording shelter in. the Japanese Legation to the Anfu leaders and in claiming ''to give them due protection" will lead to interesting developments.
It is claimed in the note addressed by Mr. Obata to the Chinese Foreign Minister, reported in Reuter's telegram of the 10th instant, that such protection is given "in consideration of internationa] practice, well established especially in Chine."" Tt must be admitted that such an international practice did, at one time, exist. It has never, however, been recognized as any part of the Law of Nations "and is properly described by Grotius a concession, "stud enim juris gentium. non est." The practice rose out of the principle of exterritoriality attaching to the house of a diplomatic agent. But it must be remembered that such exterritoriality is a fiction and in modern times has become very limited in its effects and since the end of the 18th century it has been clearly established that the immunity "of domicile thereby granted only exists in so far as it is necessary for the independence and inviolability of envoys and the inviolability of their official documents and archives.
The immunity of domicile being thus limited, the house of a diplomatic agent is only treated as being outside the territory of the state in which it is placed to such extent as may be necessary to give effect to such immunity. China has herself suffered from these limitations upon the privileges of a diplomatic agent as many of our readers will remember. In 1896 Sun Yat-sen was induced to enter the house don and was kept under arrest there in order to be conveyed forcibly to China, the Chinese envoy contending that, as the house of the Legation was Chinese territory, the British Government had no right to interfere. But the British Government did interfere, and Sun Yat-sen was released. In the present case Japan is setting up the contention that the Chinese envoy set up in 1896. The contention is entirely unsound and is based on a totally unjustifiable extension
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.