18 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



with the American Minister, wlio was pressing for the fulfillment of 

 the Convention, and had told him that time was necessary, but that he 

 was still sanguine that it would be executed. 



Now, what was the diliiculty ? The difficulty was the protest of Can- 

 ada. It was communicated from the Foreign Office to the Colonial 

 Government. Time was demanded, and an official reply was sent back 

 to Her Majesty's Government, which is the reply Lord Salisbury 

 alludes to in the letter I have just read, as the cause of the delay. 

 On page 212 of the same book, the third volume of the British Appen- 

 dix, under date of August 18th, is a letter from John Bramstou, whom 

 I believe my friend said was — 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — He was a Secretary of the Colonial Office. 



Mr. Phelps. — A Secretary of the Colonial Office. 



Sir: With reference to the letter from this Department of the lOfch instant, I am 

 directed by Lord Knutsford to transmit to you, to be laid before the Marquis of 

 tSalisbury, a copy of a dispatch from the (iovernor-General of Canada forwarding a 

 Minute of his Privy Council on the subject of the proposal of the United States 

 Government for the establishment of a close time for seals in Bchring's Sea. 



Ill view of the explanations of the Dominion Government, which state very 

 clearly the strong objections to the proposed close season, it appears to Lord Knuts- 

 ford tuat it will lie necessary for the United States Government to make some mod- 

 ified proposal if the negotiations are to have any useful result. 



The enclosure in that is "The Report of a Committee of the Hon- 

 orable Privy Council for Canada, approved by His Excellency, the 

 Governor-General in Council, on the 14th July, 1888." I will read the 

 whole of it, as it is brief: 



The Committee of the Privy Council have had under consideration a despatch 

 dated the 8th Alarch, 1888, from the Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, transmitting a copy of a letter from the Foreign Office, Avith a note from 

 the United States Minister in London, submitting a proposal from Mr. Secretary 

 Bayard for the establishment of a close season for the seal fishing in and near 

 Beiiring's Sea, to extend from the 15th April to the 1st November of each year, and 

 to be operative in the waters lying north of latitude 50 degrees north and between 

 longitude 160 degrees west and 170 degrees east from Greenwich, in which despatch 

 Lord Knutsford asks to be favored with any observations which the Canadian 

 Government may have to otter on the subject. 



The Minister of Marine and Fisheries to whom the said despatch and inclosures 

 were referred, submits a Report thereon, dated the 7th July, 1888, protesting 

 against Mr. Bayard's pi'oposal as an unjust and unnecessary interference with, or 

 ratlier prohibition of, rights so long enjoyed to a lawful and remunerative occupa- 

 tion upon the high seas. 



The Committee concur in the said Report, and advise that a copy thereof, and 

 of this Minute, if approved, be transmitted by your Excellency to the Right Honor- 

 able Secretary of State for the Colonies. 



Then follows the Minute from the Department of the Marine and 

 Fisheries, as the result of the Report of the Committee of the Privy 

 Council, signed by George E. Foster, Acting Minister of Marine and 

 Fisheries, in which the grounds of the objection were stated. 



I cannot take your time. Sir, to read the whole of this, nor is it neces- 

 sary. It is in print before you. 1 only read enough to point out that 

 their objection is that the increase of the seals is so great, the number 

 so large, that the pelagic sealing complained of by the United States 

 does not even stop the increase. Therefore, that the convention cannot 

 be necessary for the preservation of the seal, and that the real object 

 of the United States is not the ])reservation of the seal, which is in no 

 sense endangered, but is an attempt to obtain a monopoly of the seal- 

 skins, and to deprive Canada of that share in the product obtained upon 

 the high seas which can be taken, not merely without risk to the 

 existence of the herd, but without stopping its increase. 



