Gentlemen's agreement

A Gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two parties. Specific instances of gentlemen's agreements are listed below.

• The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was an informal agreement between the United States and Japan. Japan agreed not to issue passports for citizens to the United States, thus eliminating immigration. In exchange, schools in San Francisco, California agreed not to discriminate against students of Japanese descent. See also: Chinese Exclusion Act
• The phrase occurs repeatedly in interwar political relations. Britain signed a 'gentlemen's agreement' with Mussolini in 1937 over Naval access to the Mediterranean. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's discussions with Adolf Hitler culminated in the Munich Agreement of 1939 which is described in similar terms. The phrase is also used to refer to Hitler's agreement with the Austrian government in 1937 in which he guaranteed the country's independence. The phrase therefore has gained somewhat the connotation of a lightly made agreement easily broken.
• Gentleman's Agreement is a 1947 movie directed by Elia Kazan starring Gregory Peck about anti-Semitism.