Directory_and_Chronicle_1886 — Page 718

Trade except to

open ports unlawful,

Report of Provincial Dourt.

Betzure of Vessel, &c.

Regulations

as to entering waters, &c.

Penalties and proceedings.

16

ORDER IN COUNCIL.

VIII. UNLAWFUL TRADE WITH JAPAN.

92. All trade of British subjects in, to, or from any part of Japan, except such ports and towns as are for the time being open to British subjects by Treaty between Her Majesty, her heirs or successors, and the Tycoon of Japan, is hereby declared unlawful.

If any person engages in such trade as a principal, agent, ship-owner, ship-master, or supercargo, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and on conviction thereof shall be liable to punished (in the discretion of the Court before which he is convicted) by imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years with or without hard labour, and with or without a fine not exceeding 10,000 dollars without imprisonment.

93. If the Court before which any person charged with having committed such a misdemeanour is brought is a Provincial Court, the Court shall report to the Judge of the Supreme Court the pendency of

the case.

The Judge of the Supreme Court shall thereupon direct in what mode and where the case shall be heard and determined, and (notwithstanding anything in this Order) the case shall be so heard and determined accordingly.

94. The Officer commanding any of Her Majesty's vessels of war, or any of Her Majesty's Naval Officers authorised in this behalf by the Officer having the Command of Her Majesty's Naval Forces in Japan, by writing under his hand, may seize any British vessel engaged or reasonably suspected of being or having been engaged in any trade by this Order declared unlawful, and may either detain the vessel, with the master, officers, supercargo, crew, and other persons engaged in navigating the vessel, or any of them, or take or cause to be taken the vessel, and the master, officers, supercargo, crew, and other persons aforesaid, or any of them, to any port or place in Japan or elsewhere, convenient for the prosecution of a charge for the misdemeanour alleged to have been committed.

Any such vessel, master, officers, supercargo, crew, and persons may lawfully be detained at the place of seizure, or at the port or place to which the vessel is so taken, under the authority of any such officer, or of any of Her Majesty's Consular Officers in China or Japan, until the conclusion of any proceedings taken in respect of such misdemeanour.

IX.-JAPANESE WATERs.

95. When and as often as it appears to Her Majesty's Minister in Japan that the unrestricted entrance of British vessels into, or the unrestricted passage of British vessels through, any straits or other water - in Japan may lead to acts of disturbance or violence, or may otherwise endanger the maintenance of peaceful relations and intercourse between Her Majesty's subjects and the subjects of the Tycoon of Japan, Her Majesty's Minister may make any regulation for prohibiting or for restricting, in such manner as seems expedient, the entrance or passage of any British vessel (other than a vessel of war of Her Majesty) into or through any such strait or other water as aforesaid, as defined in the Regulation.

Her Majesty's Minister may from time to time revoke or alter any such Regulation.

96. The foregoing provisions of this Order relative to the making, printing, publication, enforcement, and proof of Regulations to be made by Her Majesty's Minister in China, and to the mode of proceeding in respect of any charge for an offence against any such Regulations, shall extend and apply, mutatis mutandis, to any Regulation made by Her Majesty's Minister in Japan, as last aforesaid.