Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/54

 question shall exercise control over the subjects and trade of the other country, and render good offices; should an offence be committed, they shall arrest and try the offender, and after reporting the facts of the case to the Consul at the nearest open port, give sentence according to the law.

By one of those curious ironies which are not rare in history, within three months of its signature the treaty was subjected to an acid test by an incident in the Loochoo Islands. This string of islands, which forms a pendent to the islands of Japan, was for centuries tributary both to China and Japan. But China was the older suzerain. Tribute was first sent to China in 1372 and to Japan only 1451. The princes of the Loochoos had also received their investiture regularly from the emperors of China since the time of the Ming sovereign Yung Lo (1403-25); but the islands had been conquered by the Prince of Satsuma in 1609 and since that date their princes had received investiture from the emperor of Japan. When in 1871 some Loochoo Islanders were shipwrecked on the coast of Formosa and killed and eaten by the head-hunters of the mountains, Japan demanded redress for her subjects and China made no counter-claim of suzerainty. Li Hung Chang, however, accepted responsibility