Reply to Reply

Contrary to expectation, report and rumor, the Imperial Japanese Government approved a reply to the reply (TIME, June 30) of U. S. Secretary of States Charles E. Hughes to a Japanese note of protest addressed to the U. S. Government (TIME, June 9).

The new note was despatched from Tokyo by Foreign Minister Kijuro Shidehara to Washington, for transmittance by Japanese Ambassador Masanao Hanihara to the U. S. State Department.

Friendly, courteous, firm, the note is brief and its principal contents, it was authoritatively stated, express dissatisfaction with Secretary Hughes' reply, and affirm Japan's intention of keeping the Immigration Act of 1924 an open question.