232 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



position, had no intention of practising cruelty 

 in carrying out its policy. 



It further appeared that the habit of propa- 

 gandism, in contravention of Japanese law and 

 treaty rights, by foreign missionaries, had 

 caused the converts to assume contemptuous 

 attitudes in relation to the sacred things of 

 the Sintoo faith. 



In his dispatch, No. 14, of January 22d, Mr. 

 DeLongsays: "It is quite clear that, by the 

 deportation of over three thousand native 

 Christians, the Mikado's government contem- 

 plates the conciliation of the Sintoo priesthood, 

 the bigoted country squires, and all those nu- 

 merous daimio's retainers and others in all 

 parts of Japan, who are only by their own 

 quarrels and feuds with their neighbors pre- 

 vented from forming and organizing them- 

 selves into a great national anti-foreign party, 

 which, if it were possible, would be over- 

 whelming in its strength and unanimity on 

 that basis." 



The Secretary of State having received Mr. 

 DeLong's account of the efforts of the foreign 

 representatives in Japan to obtain a modifica- 

 tion of the decrees of deportation, and. having 

 considered the disposition of the Japanese 

 Government to comply therewith so far as con- 

 sistent with its own security, informed Mr. De 

 Long on the 18th of April that his individual 

 and cooperative efforts to prevent persecution 

 were cordially approved by the Department. 



Mr. Fish says further that these deplorable 

 acts of the Japanese Government, however cruel 

 and uncalled for, do not seem to have been done 

 in violation of any treaty or agreement be- 

 tween Japan and the United States. They 

 rather appear to have been done in the exer- 

 cise of the internal authority which that gov- 

 ernment claims to possess over its subjects. 



Until the views of the other treaty powers 

 can be ascertained, the Department can give 

 you no other instruction than to continue to 

 act in the same spirit whenever occasion shall 

 call for your interference. 



An expression of the views of the other 

 treaty powers having been invited by the Sec- 

 retary of State, it was ascertained that the 

 British Government, although desiring to use 

 their influence on all occasions in favor of na- 

 tive Christians in Japan, would not think it 

 advisable to put upon the Mikado such an 

 amount of pressure as might, if successful, 

 serve to imperil his position with his subjects 

 in general ; that it had learned with satisfac- 

 tion that Mr. Fish had expressed himself en- 

 tirely opposed, on grounds both of principle 

 and expediency, to the employment offeree in 

 behalf of Christian converts in Japan. 



The British Government commended to its 

 minister in Japan the propriety of the Roman 

 Catholic missionaries impressing upon their 

 converts the necessity of 'not setting them- 

 selves, upon the strength of their conversion, 

 In opposition to the law of the empire. In a 

 ^communication to Lord Lyons, the Earl of 



Clarendon seemed to regard the distribution 

 of the converts in nineteen different localities 

 as more calculated to facilitate the propaga- 

 tion of Christianity throughout Japan than 

 their unmolested residence in their former or 

 any one locality. 



He also commended to the French Govern- 

 ment the policy of sustaining the Japanese in 

 the interdiction of the propagandisin of Chris- 

 tianity by Roman Catholic missionaries. 



The views of the British and French Gov- 

 ernments, which corresponded with those of 

 this Government, were communicated on the 

 18th of June to Mr. DeLong. 



NOETH GEEMANY. Protection of North Ger- 

 mans in France. About the middle of July 

 France declared war against North Germany, 

 and the United States were invited by the 

 North-German Government to assume the pro- 

 tection of its subjects in France during the con- 

 tinuance of hostilities. Mr. Washburne was 

 instructed to ask the assent of the French Gov- 

 ernment to this arrangement. This assent 

 was freely given. 



The Swiss minister in France was charged 

 with the protection of the subjects of Bavaria 

 and Baden, and the Russian minister with that 

 of the subjects of Wurtemberg. 



The French Government felt called upon, 

 shortly after the breaking out of the war, to 

 forbid the departure from France of such Ger- 

 mans as were subject to military duty in their 

 own country. Mr. Washburne endeavored to 

 obtain a modification of this determination of 

 the Emperor's Government, and protested 

 against the doctrine held by the Duke de 

 Gramont as to the right of belligerents toward 

 enemies' subjects residing in the belligerent's 

 country. 



Mr. Washburne's notes received the approv- 

 al of the Secretary of State, and are to be 

 found on pages 82 and 96 of the Executive 

 Document No. 1, third session, Forty-second 

 Congress. In the last note of the Duke de 

 Gramont to Mr. Washburne, the expulsion of 

 all Germans from France is alluded to as a 

 possibility of the future. In the middle of Au- 

 gust Mr. "Washburne was informed by the 

 French minister of the Interior that it had 

 been determined to order all Germans, in the 

 most humane manner, to leave the country. 

 A very interesting account of Mr. Washburne's 

 measures to obtain a revocation of the order 

 is to be found on pages 99 to 103 of the above- 

 mentioned document. 



The situation of the.Germans was aggravated 

 by General Trochu's proclamation of August 

 24th, expelling "useless mouths," and of Au- 

 gust 28th, expelling foreigners. 



The necessity of providing some pecuniary 

 relief for its distressed subjects was made 

 known to the North German Government. 

 By its order a credit was placed at the disposal 

 of Mr. Washburne to pay the expenses, to the 

 frontier, of Germans leaving France. 



On the 2d of September Mr. Washburne in- 



