46 



interview on tbis subject was held on the IGth of April, 1888, and its 

 result was stated the same day in an official comiuunication from Lord 

 Salisbury to the British Minister at Washington. Lord Salisbury 

 said: "At this preliminary discussion it was decided provisionally, in 

 order to furnish a basis for negotiation, and without definitely pledg- 

 ing our governments, that the space to be covered by the proposed 

 convention should be the sea between America and Eussia north of 

 the iTth degree of latitude; that the close time should extend from 

 the 15th of April to the 1st of November; that during that time the 

 slaughter of all seals should be forbidden, and vessels engaged in it 

 should be liable to seizuie by the cruisers of any of the three powers 

 and should be taken to the port of their own nationality for condemna- 

 tion; that the trafiic in arms, alcohol, and powder, should be prohibited 

 in all the islands of those seas; and that, as soon as the three powers 

 had concluded a convention, they should join in submitting it for the 

 assent of the other maritime powers of the northern seas. The United 

 States charge d'aifaires was exceedingly earnest in pressing- on us 

 the importance of dispatch, on account of the inconceivable slaughter 

 that had been and was still going on in these seas. He stated that, in 

 addition to the vast quantity brought to market, it was a common 

 practice for those engaged in the trade to shoot all seals they might 

 iheet in the open sea, and that of these a great number sank, so that 

 their skins could not be recovered." British Case, Vol. 6', App., 196; XT. 

 8. Case, Vol. 1, App., 238. 



A similar communication was sent to Sir E. Morier, the British Am- 

 bassador at St. Petersburg-. 



These negotiations resulted in nothing of a practical nature because 

 of the objections raised by the Canadian Government to any such plan 

 as that to which the rei^resentatives of Great Britain, the United States 

 and Eussia, '-provisionally, in order to furnish a basis for negotiation," 

 assented at the meeting of April 16, 1888. 



Mr. Phelps, had a conversation with Lord Salisbury on the 13th of 

 August, 1888, and again pressed for the comi)letiou of the convention, 

 as the proposed extermination of the seals by Canadian vessels was un- 

 derstood to be rapidly proceeding. His lordship did not question tbe 

 X)ropriety or importance of taking measures to i^revent the wanton de- 

 struction of so valuable an industry, in which, as he remarked, England 

 had a large interests of its own. But he said that the Canadian Gov- 

 ernment objected to any such restrictions, and that until its consent 



