[Note verbale.—Translation.], March 14, 1865
[Note verbale.—Translation.]
Legation of France in Japan.
The undersigned has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the joint letter, dated the 11th March, addressed to him by Mr. Winchester, chargé d’affaires of her Britannic Majesty, and Mr. De Graeff van Polsbroek, political agent and consul general of his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, transmitting copy of minute of their conference with the Gorogio, and of a memorandum which they have deemed proper to present to them.
The undersigned has already verbally expressed to Messrs. Winchester and De Graeff van Polsbroek, when they came to communicate to him the object and the result of their proceeding with the Gorogio the painful feelings which he experienced when learning that his colleagues had acted without him in a matter which interested him personally. It was, indeed, publicly known that the rumors taken for basis of the memorandum addressed by them to the Gorogio clearly and solely pointed to France and its representative, who, it was said, had induced the Japanese government to send all the silk of Japan to the market of Lyons, &c., &c.
The undersigned will not repeat, now, his opinions on this subject, but contents himself with submitting the following remarks to his colleagues:
The representatives of America, England, France, and Holland, having succeeded in establishing among themselves a perfect understanding, which has so powerfully contributed to improve our political and commercial situation in Japan, and having engaged themselves to act in concert each time that the general interests of the foreign nations shall be threatened by measures emanating from the Japanese government, the undersigned thinks that both his colleagues, Messrs. Winchester and De Graeff van Polsbroek, might have come to an understanding with him previous to writing the memorandum which they presented to the Gorogio on the subject of a question so pointedly connected with the interests of the respective citizens and subjects of the four powers above named.
Her Britannic Majesty’s chargé d’affaires and the political agent of his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, would then have convinced themselves that not only does the undersigned consider any commercial operation on the part of the Japanese government as opposed to the spirit and the letter of the treaties and of international laws, but also that he did not admit, as his colleagues have admitted in their memorandum, the right of the said government to send silk abroad in exchange for arms and munitions which it may have purchased there.
The commercial interests which the undersigned is sent to protect require that the Japanese government shall absolutely abstain from any commercial act whatever, either directly or indirectly.
The undersigned cannot explain the reply of the Gorogio, according to the minute written by his colleagues, in any other manner than as a misunderstanding or an error of translation, on many occasions, and recently again he has had similar commercial questions to discuss with the Gorogio or their envoys, and never has he been able to trace, in their replies, the slightest indication of intentions on their part such as are attributed to them.
The spread or the maintenance of such errors might affect the character of the representative of France, and he, therefore, considers it a duty to call, without delay, for a special statement on this subject on the part of the Gorogio.
The undersigned also believes that Messrs. De Graeff van Polsbroek and Winchester might have omitted, jointly and officially, to discuss with the Gorogio the question relating to the war indemnity granted by the Japanese government to England, France, America, and Holland. This question having been the subject of a convention signed by the representatives of those four powers, it seems more natural to the undersigned not to discuss it with the Gorogio until after a mutual understanding of the said representatives.
It is thus with profound regret that the undersigned now states facts which would be of a nature to affect the good understanding which, until now, has subsisted between the representatives of the four powers, if he had not, while dismissing any impression of personal feeling, resolved upon maintaining unimpaired the unity which is the essential condition of the strength they must oppose to the restrictive tendencies of the Japanese government.