HC Deb 21 March 1902 vol 105 cc716-7
MR. STUART WORTLEY (Sheffield, Hallam)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether, under the Anglo-Japanese Agreement, Great Britain would have any greater right to constitute herself the sole judge of the existence, within the meaning of Article I., of aggressive action or disturbances threatening British interests, or of the indispensableness, within the meaning of Article I., of measures to safeguard them, than Japan would have to constitute herself the sole judge of the question whether under Article III. all the events had happened necessary to lay any obligation on her to come to the assistance of Great Britain; whether the obligation to render assistance arises except where the aggressive action or the disturbances have in fact existed, and the consequent measures have in fact become indispensable; whether the obligation to communicate fully and frankly under Article V. is designed to obviate in advance differences of opinion between the contracting Powers as to the actual existence of the circumstances whereby alone the obligations contemplated by Article III. can be originated; and, whether the obligation to communicate under Article V. is the only obligation in the Treaty which is imposed on either Government by the existence of an opinion in the mind of the other.

* THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Lord CRANBORNE,) Rochester

There is no difference between the obligations assumed by Great Britain and Japan respectively under Articles I. and III. of the Agreement; they are strictly reciprocal. The obligation to render assistance under Article III. would arise in each case only where the conditions contemplated in that article as well as those contemplated in Articles I. and II. had in fact arisen. The hon. Member is correct in his supposition with regard to the object of Article V., but the provision is evidently required on every ground by the cordial and intimate relations which, apart from the specific obligations, the Agreement has established between the two Powers.