Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 14.djvu/695

 CONVENTION WITH JAPAN. OCTOBER 22, 1864. 665 0'orwenlimz between the United States andthe Empire of Japan ; Uoncluded October 22, 1864 ; Proclaimed April 9, 1866. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF ABKERICA. 0d_ gg, jg6g_ A PROCLAMATION. Wnsnnns a Convention between the Empire of Japan and the govern- Preamble. ments of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Holland, providing for the payment to said governments of the sum of three million dollars ($3,000,000) {br indemuities and expenses, was concluded and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries on the twenty-second day of October, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, which Convention, being in the English, Dutch, and Japanese languages, is word for word as follows :—- CONVENTION. The representatives of the United States of America, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands, in view of the hostile acts of Mori Daizen, prince of Nagato and Suwo, which were assuming such formidable proportions as to make it difficult for the Tycoon faithfully to observe the treaties, having been obliged to send their combined forces to the Straits of Simonoseki in order to destroy the batteries erected by that daimio for the destruction of foreign vessels and the stoppage of trade; and the government of the Tycoon, on whom devolved the duty of chastising this Amount of rebellious prince, being held responsible for any damage resulting to the dsmsgss to be interests of treaty powers, as well as the expenses occasioned by the Qfgy E0€;:;,_ expedition: The undersigned, representatives of treaty powers, and Sakai Hida no Kami, a member of his second council, invested with plenipotentiary powers by the Tycoon of Japan, animated with the desire to put an end o all reclamations concerning the acts of aggression and hostility committed by the said Mori Daizen since the tirst of these acts, in June, 1863, against the flags of divers treaty powers, and at the same time to regulate definitively the question of indemnities of war, of whatever kind, in respect to the allied expedition to Simonoseki, have agreed and determined upon the four articles following: —- I. The amount payable to the four powers is fixed at three millions of All claims indollars. This sum to include all claims, of whatever nature, for past ag- °l“d°d· gressions on the part. of Nagato, whether indemnities, ransom for Simonoseki, or expenses entailed by the operations of the allied squadrons. II. The whole sum to be payable quarterly, in instalments of one sixth, instalments, or half a million dollars, to begin trom the date when the represents- "h°¤ P*Y· tives of said powers shall make known to the 'I`ycoon’s government the ` ratification of this Convention and the instructions of their respective governments. Ill. inasmuch as the receipt of money has never been the object of the Opening or a Said powers, but the establishment of better relations with Japan, and the pvrsin the Indesire to place these on a more satisfactory and mutually advantageous ,,°g:,,,;€sdri:?§g: footing is still the leading object in view; therefore, if his Majesty the of payment or Tycoon wishes to offer, in lieu of payment of the sum claimed, and as a ’“°“°Y· material compensation for loss and injury sustained, the opening of Simouoseki, or some other eligible port in the Inland sea, it shall be at the