OCR Text |
Show HOICK J.VIMX iEHS, Sun Francisco, : -i. The steamer Alaska t which arrived from Japan on the 3d, brought the following additional addi-tional advices from that country: The recent payment of '.ho installment of the Simonoseki claims has been made the occasion lor a recalling the circumstances cir-cumstances of the affair, hitherto forgotten for-gotten or concealed. The indemnity was demanded to defray the expenses of the allied expedition in 1S64, commonly com-monly understood to have been undertaken in consequence ot the firing upon foreign ships while p.as- ing throuqh Simonoseki Straits. The i English minister was most active in organiaing this expedition, but it is now Bet forth that not a single English (ship was ever tired upon or ill' any way molested and that while the expedition was in preparation. prepara-tion. Eurl llussell was continually sending dispatches to Sir It. Alcock, stating that the passage of the straits was not necessary, and forbidding any aggressive proceedings. The action of the British (ieet was approved approv-ed by th3 home government only after it had been carried through and proved successful. A3 regards the course of France and the United States it is shown that the French government, by the special treaty of June 2"), 1804, accepted peaceful terms for the settlement of the Simonoseki trouble, and this arrangement ar-rangement was known to the French minister in Japan before the sailing of the expedition, which nevertheless never-theless proceeded with his sanction, and that tho United States Minister was in possession of a written acr knowledgment of the injury done and of a written promise to pay the penalty pen-alty demanded, It ia furthermore shown that the original intention was to 6x the indemnity at two millions, but that it was raised to three in consequence con-sequence of a suggestion that the first i named sum would be too easily paid, 1 and that in lieu of three millions the opening of a new port might be urged md secured, a circumstance which jives the whole Simonoseki aflair the appearance of being, at the beguiling, begui-ling, as it is now, a movement solely "or the purpose of exacting commercial commer-cial concessions. These tacts lmve ill been gathered from foreign olli-;ial olli-;ial documents. |