Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/60

 disarming resentment, it was certainly fortunate for the popularity of her subjects in the Far East that England saw her way finally to set a liberal example.

Nearly five years were required to bring the other Occidental Powers into line with Great Britain and America. It should be stated, however, that neither reluctance to make the necessary concessions nor want of sympathy with Japan caused the delay. The explanation is that each set of negotiators sought to improve either the terms or the terminology of the treaties already concluded, and that the tariff arrangements for the different countries required elaborate discussion.

Until the last of the revised treaties was ratified, voices of protest against revision continued to be vehemently raised by a large section of the foreign community in the Settlements. Some were honestly apprehensive as to the issue of the experiment. Others were swayed by racial prejudice, pure and simple. A few had fallen into an incurable habit of grumbling, or found their account in professing to champion so-called "foreign interests;" and all were naturally reluctant to forfeit the immunity from taxation hitherto enjoyed. It seemed as though the inauguration of the new system would find the foreign community in a mood which must greatly diminish the chances of a happy result, for where a captious and aggrieved disposition exists, oppor-