58 ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 



came in witli another suggested measure of interim protection. And 

 what was tliat? 1 presume Mr. Blaine naturally ex})ected that any 

 measure of interim protection would be as broad and effective as the 

 one which had been originally proposed by the British Government for 

 final and permanent protection. He had expected that; but now he 

 had this proposition from Sir Julian rauncefote; and what was it? To 

 appoint a mixed commission of experts who were to report at the exju- 

 ration of a period of two years! Upon their report being made to the 

 two Governments an effort was to be made to come to an agreement 

 upon it through the means of a convention which would take, uo one 

 knew how long. Tlie correspondence which had already occurred had 

 stretched through years. If the effort to come to an agreement by con- 

 vention should fail, the suggestion was of a reference to the abitratiou 

 of some imi)artial Government. And how long that would take, of 

 course, nobody could say. 



At all events the proposition carried with it the probability that meas- 

 ures designed to settle the controversy and to preserve the fur-seals from 

 extermination would be in progress of adjustment for a period of at least 

 five to ten years; and in the meantime the only suggestion for the 

 interim protection of the fur-seals was a protection of them daring the 

 months of May and June, October, November and December, leaving 

 them exposed to capture and extermination during the most important 

 months of July, August and September, 



Welkin his view — it seems to me a not unreasonable one — this proposi- 

 tion carried with it a certainty almost that the whole race would be 

 exterminated before the end of the negotiation was reached; and when 

 Mr. Blaine came to answer it, he answered it with some measure of 

 impatience and irritation. That answer is contained in his letter of 

 May 29, 1890, as it is found on page 212. It is too long to read, and it 

 is not sufficiently important to be read ; but I must summarize the con- 

 tents as well as I may. 



It contains the recital of the various steps which up to tliat time had 

 been taken in the effort to bring the two countries to an agreement. 

 Then on p. 215 it deals with the proposition of Sir Julian: 



When yon, Mr. Minister, arrived in this country a year ago, there seemed the best 

 prospectlor a settlement of this question, but the Russian minister and tlie American 

 Secretary of State liave had the experiences of Mr. Piielps and the Russian ambassa- 

 dor in London repeated. In our early interviews there seemed to be as ready a dis- 

 position on your part to come to a reasonable and friendly adjustment as there has 

 always been on our part to offer one. You will not forget an interview between your- 

 self, the Russian minister, and myself, in which the lines for a close season in the 

 Behring Sea laid down by Lord Salisbury were almost exactly repeated by yourself, 

 and were inscribed on maps which were before ns, a copy of which is in the posses- 

 sion of the Rnssian minister, and a copy also in my possession, A prompt adjust- 

 ment seemed practicable — an adjustment which lam suie would have been honorable 

 to all the countries interested. No obstacles were presented on the American side of 

 the question. No insistence was made upon the Behring Sea as mare clausum ; uo 

 objection was interposed to the entrance of British ships at all times on all commer- 

 cial errands through all the waters of the Behring Sea. But our negotiations, as in 

 Loudon, were suddenly broken off for many weeks by the interposition of Canada. 

 When correspondence was resumed on the last day of April, you made an offer for a 

 mixed commission of experts to decide the questions at issue. 



Your proposition is tliat pelagic sealing should bo prohibited in the Behring Sea 

 during the months of May, .June, October, November, and December, and that tliere 

 should be no prohibition/luring the months of July, August, and September. Your 

 proposition involved the condition that British vessels should be allowed to kill seals 

 within 10 miles of the const of the Pribilof Islands. Lord Salisbury's proposition 

 of 1888 was that during the same mouths, for which the 10-mile privilege is now 

 demanded, no British vessel hunting seals should come nearer to the Pribilof Islands 

 than the 47th parallel of north latitude, about 600 miles. 



The open season which you thus select for killing is the one when the areas around 

 the breeding islands are most crowded with seals, and especially crowded with female 



