TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN
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Article XVI.-Each of the high contracting parties may appoint Consuls- General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Pro-Consuls, and Consular Agents in all the ports, cities, and places of the other, except in those where it may not be convenient to recognize such officers.
This exception, however, shall not be made in regard to one of the contracting parties without being made likewise in regard to every other Power.
The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Pro-Consuls, and Consular Agents may exercise all functions, and shall enjoy all privileges, exemptions, and immunities which are or may hereafter be granted to Consular officers of the most favoured nation.
Article XVII. The subjects of each of the high contracting parties shall enjoy in the dominions and possessions of the other the same protection as native subjects in regard to patents, trade marks, and designs, upon fulfilment of the formalities prescribed by law.
* Article XVIII.-Her Britannic Majesty's Government, so far as they are concerned, give their consent to the following arrangement :-
The several foreign Settlements in Japan shall be incorporated with the respective Japanese Communes, and shall thenceforth form part of the general municipal system of Japan.
The competent Japanese authorities shall thereupon assume all municipal obliga- tions and duties in respect thereof, and the common funds and property, if any, be- longing to such Settlements, shall at the same time be transferred to the said Japanese authorities.
When such incorporation takes place existing leases in perpetuity under which property is now held in the said Settlements shall be confirmed, and no conditions. whatsoever other than those contained in such existing leases shall be imposed in respect of such property. It is, however, understood that the Consular authorities mentioned in the same are in all cases to be replaced by the Japanese authorities.
All lands which may previously have been granted by the Japanese Government free of rent for the public purposes of the said Settlements shall, subject to the right of eminent domain, be permanently reserved free of all taxes and charges for the public purposes for which they were originally set apart.
Article XIX.-The stipulations of the present Treaty shall be applicable, so far as the laws permit, to all the Colonies and foreign possessions of Her Britannic Majesty, excepting to those hereinafter named, that is to say, except to-
South Australia.
New Zealand.
India.
Queensland.
New South Wales The Cape. †The Dominion of Canada. Western Australia. Tasmania. Victoria. Natal.
Newfoundland. Provided always that the stipulations of the present Treaty shall be made applicable to any of the above-named Colonies or foreign possessions on whose behalf notice to that effect shall have been given to the Japanese Government by Her Britannic Majesty's Representative at Tokyo within two years from the date of the exchange of ratifications of the present Treaty.
* Owing to serious difference of opinion which arose between Japan of the one part and Great Britain, France and Germany of the other part regarding the interpretation of this clause with regard to leases held in perpetuity, an Arbitration Tribunal was appointed. The Governments of Germany, France and Great Britain named as Arbitrator M. Louis Renault, Professor of Law in the University of Paris and Legal Adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Japan named as Arbitrator His Excellency Itchiro Motono, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, at Paris, Doctor of Law. M. Gregers Gram, formerly Norwegian Minister of State, was chosen by the Arbitrators as Umpire. The Tribunal sat at The Hague, and on May 22nd, 1905, decided by a majority of votes and declared that: "The provisions of the Treaties and other engagements mentioned in- the Protocols of Arbitration exempt not only the land held in virtue of the leases in perpetuity granted by or on behalf of the Government of Japan, but they exempt the land and buildings of every description constructed or which may hereafter be constructed on such land from all imposts, taxes, charges, contributions or conditions whatsoever, other than those expressly stipulated in. the leases in question." Mr. Motono recorded his entire disagreement with the decision.
On January 31st, 1906, an agreement was signed in Tokyo making the Stipulations this Treaty applicable to the Dominion of Canada.
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