No. 289.
No. 16.]
Mr. Fish to Mr. De Long.
Sir: I have received your dispatches Nos. 10, 13, 14, 16, and 20, relating to the treatment of native Christians in Japan. The individual and the coöperative efforts that you have made to prevent the persecution of this people are cordially approved by the Department. These deplorable acts of the Japanese government, however cruel or uncalled for, do not seem to have been done in violation of any treaty or agreement between Japan and the United States. They rather appear to have been done in the exercise of the internal authority which that government claims to possess over its subjects.
Until the views of the other treaty powers can be ascertained, the Department can give you no other instructions than to continue to act in the same spirit whenever occasion shall call for your interference.
Instructions have been sent to the ministers at London, Paris, and Berlin, to ascertain whether those governments, respectively, contemplate sending any further instructions on the subject to their diplomatic or consular officers. When the replies are received to these instructions, it is possible that the Department may communicate with you further touching the matter.