The Satsuma refused to apologize, to pay the compensation of £25,000 demanded by the British, or to convict and execute the two Japanese samurai responsible for the murder, arguing that disrespect to the daimyō was normally sanctioned by the immediate death of those showing disrespect. Legally, their claim was invalid, as foreigners in Japan benefited from extraterritoriality due to Japan's reluctant acceptance of the Unequal treaties with Europe. Japanese customary law did not usually apply to foreigners but, politically, Satsuma felt it could not be seen as submitting to European demands in the very anti-foreign context at that time in Japan. The British wished to make a point against anti-foreigner outrages in Japan. Other anti-foreign troubles were occurring throughout the country at the same time, reinforced by Emperor Kōmei's 1863 "Order to expel barbarians". The European powers chose to react militarily to such exactions: the Straits of Shimonoseki had already seen attacks on American, Dutch and French ships passing through, each of which had brought retaliation from those countries, with the U.S. frigate USS "Wyoming" under Captain McDougal, the Dutch warship "Medusa" under Captain François de Casembroot, and the two French warships "Tancrède" and the "Dupleix" under Captain Benjamin Jaurès attacking the mainland. Eventually, on 14 August, a multinational fleet under Admiral Kuper and the Royal Navy commenced the Bombardment of Shimonoseki to prevent further attacks on western shipping there. The American-European operations against the Japanese succeeded.