Directory_and_Chronicle_1885 — Page 994

CONVENTION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND HOLLAND, WITH JAPAN.

SIGNED, IN THE ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND JAPANESE LANGUAGES, AT TOKIO, 25TH JUNE, 1866.

The Representatives of Great Britain, France, the United States of America, and Holland, having received from their respective Governments identical instruc- tions for the modification of the Tariff of Import and Export duties contained in the Trade Regulations annexed to the Treaties concluded by the aforesaid Powers with the Japanese Government in 1858, which modification is provided for by the Seventh of those Regulations :-

And the Japanese Government having given the said Representatives, during their visit to Osaka, in November, 1865, a written engagement to proceed imme- diately to the Revision of the Tariff in question, on the general basis of a duty of five per cent, on the value of all articles imported and exported :-

And the Government of Japan being desirous of affording a fresh proof of their wish to promote trade, and to cement the friendly relations which exist between their country and foreign nations:-----

His Excellency Midzuno Idzumi no Kami, a member of the Gorojin and a Minister of Foreign Affairs, has been furnished by Government of Japan with the necessary powers to conclude with the Representives of the above-named four Powers, that is to say:

Of Great Britain,

Sir Harry S. Parkes, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Her Brannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan:

Of France,

Monsieur Leon Roches, Commander of the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour, Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the Emperor of the French in Japan;

Of the United Unites. America,

A. L. C. Portman, Esquire, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim ;

And of Holland,

Monsieur Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek, Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, Political Agent and Consul-General of His Majesty the King of the Netherlands;

The following Convention, comprising Twelve Articles.

Art. I. The contracting parties declare in the names of their respective Governments that they accept, and they hereby do formally accept, as binding upon the subjects of their respective Sovereigns, and the citizens of their respective countries, the Tariff hereby established annexed to the present convention.

This Tariff is substituted not only for the original Tariff attached to the Treaties concluded with the above-named four Powers, but also for the special Conventions and arrangements relative to the same Tariff, which have been entered into at different dates up to this time between the Governments of Great Britain, France, and the United States on the one side, and the Japanese Government on the other.

The New Tariff shall come into effect in the Port of Kanagawa (Yokohama), on the first day of July next, and in the ports of Nagasaki and Hakodate on the first day of the following month.

Art. II-The Tariff attached to this convention being incorporated from the date of its signature in the Treaties concluded between Japan and the above-named four Powers, is subject to revision on the first day of July, 1872.

Two years, however, after the signing of the present convention, any of the contracting parties, on giving six months' notice to the others, may claim a re-adjust- ment of the duties on Tea and Silk, on the basis of five per t on the average value of these articles during the three years last preceding. . the demand also of any of the contracting parties, the duty on timber may be changed from an ad valorem to a specific rate six months after the signature of this convention,