222 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Sir Julian Fauncc/ote to Mr. Blaine. 



Washing-ton, June 14, 1890. 



Sir: Witli rofcreiice to the note which I liad the honor to address to 

 yoii on the lltli instant, I desire to express my deep regret at liaving 

 tailed np to the present time to obtain from yon the assnraiice, which I 

 had hoped to receive, that dnring tlie contiiinanee of our negotiations 

 for tlie settlement of the fnr-seal tishery question British sealing vessels 

 would not be interfered with by United JStates revenue cruisers in the 

 Behring Sea outside of territorial waters. 



Having learned from statements in the public press and from other 

 sources that the revenue cruisers liufih and Corivin are now about to be 

 dispatched to the Behring Sea, I can not, consistently with the instruc- 

 tions I have received Irom my Government, defer any longer the com- 

 munication of their formal ])rotest announced in my notes of the LMd 

 ultimo and the 11th instant against iiny such interference with British 

 vessels. 



I ha> e accoidingly the honor to transunt the same herewith. 

 I have, etc., 



Julian Pauncefote. 



[Inclosure/ 



Protest. 



(Beceived June 14, 12:35, 1890.) 



The undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty's Envoy-Extraordinary and 

 IMiuister rieuiijotentiary to tlu* United States of America, has the honor, 

 by instruction of his Government, to make to the Hon. James G. Blaine, 

 Secretary of State of the Unitetl States, the f(»llowing comnmnication: 



Her Britannic Majesty's Government have learned with great con- 

 cern from notices which have appeared in the press, and the general 

 uccuracy of which has bt^en contirnied by Mr. Blaine's statemeiits to the 

 undersigned, that the Goverinnent of the United States have issued 

 instructions to their revenue cruisers ab<uit to be dispatched to Behring' 

 Sea, under which the vessels of British subje(-ts will agaiu be exposed, 

 in the prosecution of their legitimate industry on the high seas, to un- 

 lawful interfereiK'e at the hands of American oflicers. 



Her Britannic IMaJesty's Government are anxious to cooperate to the 

 fullest extent of their power with the Government of the United States 

 in such measures as may be found to be expedient for the protection of 

 the seal lisheries. They are at the present moment engaged in examin- 

 ing, in concert with the Government of the United States, the best 

 metliod of arriving at an agreement upon this point. But they can not 

 admit the right of the United States of their own sole motion to restric^t 

 for this ]»uriH>se the freedom of navigation of Behring Sea, which the 

 Uniti'd States have themsehes in former years convincingly and success- 

 fully vindicated, nor to enforce their nninicipal legislation against Brit- 

 ish vessels on the high seas beyond the limits of tlieir territorial juris- 

 diction. 



Her Britannic Majesty's Government are therefore unal)le to pass 

 over without notice the i)ublic announcement of an intention on the 

 ])art of the Grovernmentof the United States to renew tlie actsof inter- 

 ference with British vessels navigating outside the territorial waters of 

 the United States, of which they have previously had to comi)laiu. 



