When Japan's Toshima naval battle won a great victory, in Japan's base camp, the Minister of Huashan Military Command hosted a banquet in honor of the captains of various ships returning from the battlefield. Tougou Heihachirou, the captain of the "Wave Speed" that sank the British merchant ship "Gao Shenghao", even boasted to his colleagues who greeted him: "I succeeded!" At this time, other captains congratulated Dongxiang. When Akira jinzhou area's captain Hiroshi Uemura heard this, he said to Dongxiang with a mocking smile, "You are really a pregnant guy!" Insinuated that Tougou Heihachirou sank the Qing "Gao Shenghao" troop carrier, and the people at the banquet burst into laughter.
And the 1030 people on the "Gao Shenghao" sunk by them also sank into the deep sea with this troop carrier.
After a merchant ship flying the British flag was flagrantly sunk by the Japanese navy on the high seas, British public opinion was in an uproar, and the government even sent a note to the Japanese minister to lodge a serious protest with the Japanese government. After learning that the Gao Shenghao was sunk by the Japanese, Philip Mante, commander of the British Far East Fleet, immediately sent warships to the accident site in the Korean waters to search for evidence accusing the Japanese fleet.
Theoretically, after the Japanese fleet attacked and sank the British merchant ship, all compensation should be paid by the Japanese to the British. However, with the development of the incident, Britain and Japan finally decided that the compensation for the sinking of Gao Shenghao should be paid by the Qing Dynasty.
When the British Far East Fleet was singling out the culprits, the Japanese government began to panic, fearing that this incident would cause the international community to fully condemn Japan. In order to cover up this incident, the Japanese government ordered Mo Songqian, Director of Legal Affairs, to investigate. Mo Song first asked the captain and crew of the warship about their nationality and Danish nationality, and then gave these westerners 800 yuan pensions ranging from 2,000 yuan respectively, and released them or released them.
Subsequently, Foreign Minister Lu Ao instructed to summon the British Acting Minister in Japan. When meeting with China and Japan, he even reported all the investigation results to the acting minister and said that he would compensate the victims for the unfortunate behavior of the Japanese fleet. The Acting Minister said that as soon as he knew what had happened, he would immediately send a telegram to Britain informing him of the investigation result of this incident.
To this end, there are two voices in Britain. First, in August of 1, internationally renowned legal scholars such as Cambridge University and Oxford University published an article in The Times, claiming that "Japan's ultimatum to China was July 25th, and China still ignored the Japanese government's warning and continued to send more troops to disputed areas in North Korea, which was obviously a challenge to the Japanese government's ultimatum. They believed that the Japanese actions were justified and the sinking of Gao Shenghao was in line with the international practice at that time. ". Another voice is a written letter sent by the British Foreign Secretary to the Japanese Ambassador to Britain on August 3, pointing out that "the attitude of the British government towards this incident should bear the main responsibility, and the specific conclusions need to be reported in detail".
On August 4th, the British Maritime Court in Nagasaki held a hearing on the "Gao Shenghao" incident, and the court also summoned the parties of the crew of the "Gao Shenghao". On August 7, the court concluded the trial and made a judgment.
Gao Shenghao is seaworthy and all the necessary conditions have been met.
Before and after the sinking of the Gao Shenghao, the crew and their crew acted correctly and there was nothing to blame.
The sinking of the Gao Shenghao was caused by the rapid shelling of Japanese warships.
When a disaster happened in Gao Shenghao, the captain and crew had no way to avoid it.
The maritime court has nothing to blame for all the crew members.
The result of the first test was that all the navigation behaviors of Gao Shenghao were normal, but by the second test, everything was upside down.
On August 17, the British government maritime court held a hearing on the case of Gao Shenghao's liability for damages. The final judgment of the referee is that the Japanese government is irresponsible for this incident and the behavior of the Japanese warship is completely justified. The referee also made criticisms and suggestions to the British government. As the Qing government paid 40,000 pounds in advance to the Indian zhina steamship company as a reserve fund for loss compensation, it was agreed that the Qing government would compensate the British steamship company for the above amount if there was an accident at Goldman Sachs due to the war.
1On September 6th, 895, the British Foreign Office sent the claim list of the shipping company to the Qing government, amounting to about 46,000 pounds, but it was firmly opposed by the Qing government, claiming that it should be compensated by Japan.
Only in the "Gao Shenghao" incident did Japanese diplomacy pay attention to the study and application of international law, which echoed the rules and regulations of British legal scholars in international law. Finally, the Qing government became the person responsible for this incident.
1902, under pressure, Emperor Guangxu finally paid the British 334 1 1 pound, equivalent to 266,595 taels of silver. The claim for the "Gao Shenghao" incident ended in full compensation by the Qing government.