Speech #660193367

President. it is not a question whether this feeling in the western part of our country concerningimmigration is either right or fair. There is much that can be.said against such a discrimination. but it is folly not to recognize the factthat in our national life such a feeling does exist. and it emphasizes the necessity of the recognized principle that imnmigration is a matter which every nation must settle entirely for itself. If Japan were to assert that our immigration policy was not by any means a mere domestic question but that it affected the honor of the Japanese nation. and became. therefore. an international question. she would have strong ground upon which to stand in urging the council of the League of Nations to.consider and pass upon the matter. This is all the more true because. under article 4 of the covenant of the League of Natiois. the council is expressly authorized to deal with any matter of whatever character that may affect the peace of the world. and. if the insistence of Japan upon her point was vehement. there would arise at once a threatening danger to the peace of tile world. If the council were. because of this fact. to attempt to decide whether the immigration laws of the United States should be sustained or not. it would consider the matter at sessions in which neither Japan nor the United States would have a vote. and If the council. with the United States and Japan both eliminated. should find that our immigration laws were lnot a matter of domestic jurisdiction. we would be forced into the humiliating position of having our own laws.* vhich we.6 firmly believe are entirely internal in their character. passed upon and eitler enforced or rejected by the representatives of other nations sitting in a council in wi ich we. because we were parties to the dispute. would have no voice. Such a position is inconceivable alike to our honor as a nation and to our own safety as a people. and reservation No. 4 absolutely safeguards in this matter the interests of the United States.