Mr. Buck to Mr. Hay.
Tokyo, August 15, 1902.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of instruction No. 414, of date of the 18th ultimo, acknowledging the receipt of my No. 651, of the 9th of June last, respecting arbitration of the “house-tax” question, and stating the opinion of the United States that-it would be conducive to the promotion of harmonious relations in future between the Japanese Government and other powers if all subsidiary questions of taxation as well as that of the house tax should be embraced in the scope of the arbitration, so far as questions may be raised by any of the interested powers, for reasons therein given, and stating that the substance of the instruction may be communicated to the Japanese Government.
On communicating the substance of the instruction to the Japanese Government, I find that the question to be submitted to arbitration has already been agreed upon between the Japanese Government and the ministers of the protesting powers—Great Britain, France, and Germany—as to the scope of the arbitration in terms, as follows:
Whereas a dispute has arisen between the Governments of Japan on the one side and Great Britain, France, and Germany on the other, respecting the true intent and meaning of the following provisions of the treaties and other engagements existing between them—that is to say, paragraph 4, Article XVIII of the Anglo-Japanese treaty; paragraph 4, Article XXI of the Franco-Japanese treaty; paragraph 4, Article XVIII of the German-Japanese treaty, and paragraph 3 of the complementary note [Page 726] from the German minister for foreign affairs to the Japanese minister at Berlin, dated April 4, 1896, and the pertinent clauses of the Japanese minister’s reply of the same date—the question at issue upon which the parties to this arbitration request the arbitral tribunal to pronounce a final decision is as follows:
Whether or not the provisions of the treaties and other engagements above quoted exempt only land held under leases in perpetuity granted by or on behalf of the Japanese Government, or land and buildings of whatever description constructed, or which may hereafter be constructed, on such land, from any imposts, taxes, charges, contributions, or conditions whatsoever other than those expressly stipulated in the leases in question.
I am informed that the protocol will be formally signed as soon as it can be agreed between the ministers of the three protesting powers in what language it shall be. As the Japanese Government require that each of the three ministers shall join in signing one and the same instrument, and as the French minister declares that he can only sign the protocol written in the French language, there seems to be some difficulty and delay in the matter, expected to be overcome in a few days at most.
I have, etc.,