Root-Takahira Exchange of NotesConvention additional to the General Treaty, and to that end
have named as Delegates:
UNL:Costa Rica.—Their Excellencies Doctor Don Luis Ander-
son and Don Joaquín B. Calvo;
Guatemala.—Their Excellencies Doctor Don Antonia Batres
Jáuregui, Doctor Don Luis Toledo Herrarte, and Don Victor
Sánches Ocaña;
Honduras.—Their Excellencies Doctor Don Policarpo Bonilla,
Doctor Don Angel Ugarte, and Don E. Constantino Fiallos;
Nicaragua.—Their Excellencies Doctors Don José Madriz and
Don Luis F. Corea; and
Salvador.—Their Excellencies Doctor Don Salvador Gallegos,
Doctor Don Salvador Rodrígues González, and Don Federico
Mejía.
By virtue of the invitation sent in accordance with Article II
of the protocol signed at Washington on September 17, 1907, by
the Plenipotentiary Representatives of the five Central Ameri-
can Republics, their excellencies, the Representative of the Gov-
ernment of the United Mexican States, Ambassador Don
Enrique C. Creel, and the Representative of the Government of
the United States of America, Mr. William I. Buchanan, were
present at all the deliberations.
The Delegates assembled in the Central American Peace
Conference at Washington, after having communicated to one
another their respective full powers, which they found to be in
due form, have agreed to carry out the said purpose in the fol-
lowing manner:
Article I. The Governments of the High Contracting Parties
shall not recognize any other Government which may come
into power in any of the five Republics as a consequence of a
coup d’etat,or of a revolution against the recognized Govern-
ment, so long as the freely elected representatives of the people
thereof have not constitutionally reorganized the country.
Article II. No Government of Central America shall in case
of civil war intervene in favor of or against the Government of
the country where the struggle takes place.
Article III. The Governments of Central America, in the first
place, are recommended to endeavor to bring about, by the
means at their command, a constitutional reform int eh sense of
prohibiting the reelection of the President of a Republic, where
such prohibition does not exist, secondly to adopt all measures
necessary to effect a complete guarantee of the principle of
alternation in power.
Signed at the city of Washington on the twentieth day of
December, on thousand nine hundred and seven.
LUIS ANDERSON.
J.B. CALVO.
ANTONIO BATRES JÁUREGUI.
LUIS TOLEDO HERRARTE.
VICTOR SÁNCHEZ O.
POLICARPO BONILLA.
ANGEL UGARTE.
E. CONSTANTINO FIALLOS.
JOSÉ MADRIZ.
LUIS F COREA.
SALVADOR GALLEGOS.
SALVADOR RODRÍGUEZ G.
F. MEJÍA.4.1213 Root-Takahira Exchange of Notes
Alliance Members:United States and Japan
Signed On:November 30, 1908, in the city of Washington, D.C. In
force until July 4, 1910, the time of the signing of the Russo-Japanese
convention concerning Manchuria.
Alliance Type:Entente (Type III)
Source: Tokutomi, Itchiro. 1922.Japanese-American Relations.Trans.
Sukeshige Yanagiwara. New York: MacMillan Co., p. 167–168.SUMMARY
This agreement between the U.S. secretary of state, Elihu Root, and the
Japanese ambassador, Takahira Kogoro, affirmed the territorial status
quo in Asia and confirmed a free and independent China (the U.S.
Open Door Policy) and U.S. annexation of Hawaii and the Philip-
pines. The agreement also implicitly guaranteed Japanese interests in
Manchuria and the Korean peninsula.
The agreement served as a framework of understanding between two
emerging major states in the Pacific. The United States had defeated
Spain just ten years prior, and Japan had soundly defeated Russia in its
1904 war on the continent. The alliance did not last long, however, as
the 1910 Russo-Japanese convention afforded Japan the power to
effectively dominate Manchuria and Korea.Exchange of Notes
Note from the Japanese ambassador to the Secretary of
State
JAPANESE EMBASSY,
Washington, Nov. 30, 1908
SIR:
The exchange of views between us, which has taken place at
the several interviews which I have recently had the honor of
holding with you, has shown that Japan and the United States,
holding important outlying insular possessions in the region of
the Pacific Ocean, the governments of the two countries are ani-
mated by a common aim, policy and intention in that region.
Believing that a frank avowal of that aim, policy and inten-
tion would not only tend to strengthen the relations of friend-
ship and good neighborhood which have immemorially existed
between Japan and the United States, but would materially con-
tribute to the preservation of the general peace, the Imperial
Government have authorized me to present to you an outline of
their understanding of that common aim, policy and intention:- It is the wish of the two governments to encourage the
free and peaceful development of their commerce on
the Pacific Ocean.