200 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



tliat I believed it had been so commuiiicatod in a letter addressed by 

 Mr. Bayard to Sir Lionel West, and that that letter would be found in 

 the printed correspondence on the subject which was laid before Con- 

 gress this year. 



I have since learned that the assurance which Lord Salisbury had in 

 mind when writing the dispatch I read was not that to which I referred 

 in my reply to you, but was an assurance conuuunicated unolticially to 

 hislordslnp by the United States minister in London, and also by Mr. 

 Bayard to Sir Lionel West in the month of April last year. 

 I have, etc., 



n. G. Edwaedes. 



Mr. Blaine to Sir Jnlian Fannccfotc. 



Department of State, 

 WasJiinfjton, January 22, 1800. 



Sir: Several weeks have elapsed since I had the honor to receive, 

 through the hands of Mr. Edwardes copies of two dispatches from Lord 

 Salisbury comi>Iaining of the course of the United States revenue-cut- 

 ter Hush in intercepting Canadian vessels sailing under the British flag 

 and engaged in taking fur seals in the waters of the Behring Sea. 



Subjects which could not be i)ostponed have engaged the attention 

 of this Department and have rendered it impossible to give a formal 

 answer to Lord Salisbury until the x>r<?sent time. 



In the opinion of the President, the Canadian vessels arrested and 

 detained in the Behring Sea were engaged in a i)ursuit that was in 

 \tt^e\f contra, honos mores, a pursuit which of necessity involves a serious 

 and permanent injury to the rights of the (lovernment and people of 

 the United States. To establish this ground it is not necessary to argue 

 the question of the extent and nature of the sovereignty of this Govern- 

 ment over the waters of the Behring Sea; it is not necessary to explain, 

 certainly not to deline, the powers and privileges ceded by His Imperial 

 Majesty the Emperor of Russia in the treaty by which the Alaskan 

 territory was transferred to the United States. The weighty consider- 

 ations growing out of tlu; ac(piisition of tliat territory, with all the riglits 

 on land and sea- inseparably connected therewith, may be safely left out 

 of view, while the grounds are set forth upon which this Government 

 rests its justification for the action complained of by Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment. 



It can not be unknown to Her Majesty's (Jovernmentthat oneof the 

 most valuable sources of revenue from the Alaskan possessions is the 

 fur-seal fisheries of the Behring Sea. Those iisheiies had been exclu- 

 sively controlled by the Government of Bussiai, without interference or 

 without question, from their original discovery until the cession of 

 Alaska, to the United States in 1807. From 1807 to 1880 the ]>ossession 

 in which Ilussia, hadbecn umlisturbed was enjoyed l)y this (Jovernment 

 also. There was no intenui)tion and no intrusiosi IVoin any source. 

 Vessels from other nations ]»assing from time to time through Behiing 

 Sea, to the Arctic Ocean in ])nrsuit of whales had always al)sfained from 

 taking part in the eaptui'c of seals. 



This uniform a,v(»i(lance of all attemi)ts to take fur seal in those 

 waters had Iteen a, constant recognition of tiie right hehl and exercised 

 first by Itussia and subsequently by this Government. It has also been 



