Sir F. Bruce to Mr. Seward
Sir: Under instructions from her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, I beg to state, for your information, the following circumstances connected with the distribution of the money received from the Japanese government on account of the Simonoseki indemnity.
It appears that the second and third instalments of this indemnity, amounting altogether to one million dollars, were divided equally by the representatives of the United States, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, without reference to the admitted special claims of the three first-named powers. These claims, however, which reached in the aggregate the sum of one hundred and forty thousand dollars, left, properly speaking, only eight hundred and sixty-thousand dollars to be equally divided among all the four powers. The share falling to Great Britain should consequently have been two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars instead of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which she actually received, and the surplus thirty-five thousand dollars had therefore to be returned by her for division among the remaining three powers. With a view to adjusting this error, I am directed to state that orders will be immediately sent to the proper officer in Japan to pay to each of the representatives of the United States, France, and the Netherlands in that country the sum of eleven thousand six hundred and sixty-six and two-thirds dollars, that being the third of the amount received by Great Britain in excess of her proper share of the indemnity in question.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.