29 



to Mr. Blaine's note of Febiuaiy 24, referred to tlie statement of the 

 latter that ''if Her Majesty's Government would make their efforts most 

 effective the sealing- in the Korth Pacific Ocean should be forbidden." 

 If, as is now contended, the treaty then about to be signed, and 

 which was signed the next day, did not contemplate regulations fur the 

 preservation of these fur seals while they were in the North Pacific 

 Ocean on their migration routes, it would have been easy for tlie Prit- 

 ish Minister to state that fact as a conclusive reason why the modus 

 Vivendi for 1892 should only apply to Bering' Sea. But no such rea- 

 son was assigned for the refusal of the British Government to extend 

 the modus for that year to the North Pacific Ocean. The United States 

 Government was, unfortunately, in such condition at that time, in 

 respect to the arbitration, that it was compelled to accept a modu.s for 

 1892, applicable only to Bering Sea, or leave both that sea and the 

 North Pacific Oceau entirely open to jjelagic sealing- pending the arbi- 

 tration. 



Notwithstanding- the distinct declaration made to the United States 

 by the British Government, through its representative at Washington, 

 that "the sole object of the negotiation is the preservation of the fur 

 seal species for the benefit of mankind, and that no considerations of 

 advantage to any particular nation, or of benefit to any private inter- 

 est, should enter into the question;" notwithstanding the exi^licit 

 assurance, given by the Marquis of Salisbury, that Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment "always have been, and are still, anxious for the arrangement 

 of a convention which shall provide whatever close time in whatever 

 localities is necessary for the preservation of the fur seal species;" and, 

 notwithstanding the express injunctiouof the treaty that the Arbitrators, 

 upon finding- the concurrence of Great Britain necessary to the establish- 

 ment of regulations " for the proper ])rotection and preservation of the 

 fur seal in, or habitually resorting- to, the Bering Sea," shall "deter- 

 mine what concurrent regulations outside the jurisdictional limits of 

 the respective governments are necessary, and over what waters such 

 regulations should extend," tlie contention now by Her Majesty's Attor- 

 ney General and his learned associates, is that the Tribunal is Avithout 

 authority or jurisdiction, under the treaty, to prescribe regulations 

 api)licable to the North Pacific Ocean, or any regulations which in 

 terms, or by their necessary operation, will result in the prohibition of 

 pelagic sealing. It is contended that no such power can be exerted 

 by this Tribunal, even if the Arbitrators find from the evidence that 



