SIMONOSEKI INDEMNITIES—OCTOBER 22, 1864
13
- The whole sum to be payable quarterly in instalments of one sixth or half a Million Dollars, to begin from the date when the Representatives of said Powers shall make known to the Tycoon's Government the ratification of this Convention and the instructions of their respective Governments.
- Inasmuch as the receipt of money has never been the object of the said Powers, but the establishment of better relations with Japan, and the desire to place these on amore satisfactory and mutually advantageous footing is still the leading object in view, therefore, if His Majesty the Tycoon wishes to offer in lieu of payment of the sum claimed, and as a material compensation for loss and injury sustained, the opening of Simonoseki, or some other eligible Port in the Inland Sea, it shall be at the option of the said Foreign Governments to accept the same, or insist on the payment of the indemnity in money under the conditions above stipulated.
- This Convention to be formally ratified by the Tycoon's Government within fifteen days from the date thereof.[1]
In token of which, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed and sealed this Convention in quintuplicate with English, Dutch and Japanese versions, whereof the English shall be considered the original.
Done at Yokohama this 22nd day of October 1864,—corresponding to the 22nd day of the 9th month of the First year of Gengi.
Sakai Hida no Kami [ideographic signature]
Robt. H. Pruyn
Minister Resident of the United States in Japan
Rutherford Alcock
H B M's Envoy Extrd. & Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan
Leon Roches
Ministre plénip're de S. M. L'Empereur des Français, au Japon
D. de Graeff van Polsbroek
H N M's Consul General & Political Agent in Japan
- ↑ By a letter of Nov. 4, 1864, the American Minister Resident of the United States in Japan was informed by the Japanese Ministers that their government had "undertaken to give effect to" the convention of Oct. 22, 1864 (Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs (Diplomatic Correspondence), 1864, pt. III, pp. 587-588); by a letter of Dec. 4, 1865, the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs announced that the Mikado's ratification of the convention was promulgated on Dec. 1, 1865 (1866 Diplomatic Correspondence (II) 193-194).
