Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/57

 tion were aroused on the side of the Japanese, who, chafing against the obvious antipathies of their foreign critics, and growing constantly more impatient of the humiliation to which their country was internationally condemned, were sometimes prompted to displays of resentment which became new weapons in the hands of their critics. Throughout this struggle the Government and citizens of the United States always showed conspicuous sympathy with Japanese aspirations, and it should also be recorded that, with exceptions so rare as to establish the rule, foreign tourists and publicists discussed the problem liberally and fairly, perhaps because, unlike the foreign communities resident in Japan, they had no direct interest in its solution.

It would be erroneous to suppose that responsibility for the singularly protracted character of the negotiations for revision rested entirely on the foreign side. More than once an agreement had reached the verge of conclusion, when Japanese public opinion, partly incited by political intrigues, rebelled vehemently against the guarantees demanded of Japan, and the negotiations were interrupted in consequence, not to be again resumed until a considerable interval had elapsed. This point is easily understood by recalling that whereas, at the outset of the discussion, Japanese officialdom had the matter entirely in its own hands and might have settled it on any basis, however liberal to foreigners, without provoking,