284 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



''las established a pearl fishery in an area of the Indian Ocean, 000 miles 

 •wide. And so comidete is the assumption of power that, according to 

 Sir George Baden-Powell, a license fee is collected from the vessels en- 

 gaged in the pearl fisheries in the open ocean. The asserted power goes 

 to the extent of making foreign vessels that have j^rocnred their pearls 

 far outside the 3-mile limit pay a heavy tax Avhen the vessels enter an 

 Australian port to land cargoes and refit. Thus the foreign vessel is 

 hedged in on hoth sides, and is hound to ]>ay the tax under IJritish law, 

 because, as Sir George liaden-Powell intimates, the voyage to another 

 port would probably l)e more expensive than the tax. 1 qTU)te further 

 from Sir Geoige to show the extent to which British assumption of 

 power over the Ocean has gone: 



The right to chargo tlicse dues and to exercise tliis control oiilside the o-mile Tim\. 

 is liased on an act of the Federal Conncil of Anstralasia, which (Federal Coimcil act» 

 1885, section 15) enacts that the conncil shall have legislative anthority, inter alia, 

 in reitpect of fislieries in Anatfalian wafers outside territorial limits. In 1889 tliis conncil 

 passed an act to "regulate the ]iearl shell and heche de mer fisheries in Australian 

 Avaters adjacent to the colony of Western Australia." In 1888 a similar act ha<ll)cen 

 passed, dealing with the fisheries in the seas adjacent to Queensland (on tlie east coast)_ 



1 am directed by the President to say that, on behalf of the United 

 States, he is willing to adopt the text used in the act of Parliament to 

 exclude shij^s from hovering riearer to the island of St. Helena than 

 8 marine leagues, or he Avill take the example cited by Sir George 

 Baden-Powell, where, ]»y permission of Her Majesty's Government, 

 control over a part of the ocean (iOO miles wide is to-day authoiized by 

 Australian law. The President will ask the Government of Great 

 Britain to agree to the distance of 20 marine leagues — within which 

 no ship shall hover around the islands of St. Paul and St. George, 

 from the IHth of May to the lath of Oi-tober of each year. This will 

 prove an effective mode of preserving the seal fisheries for the use of 

 the civilized world — a mode which, in view of Great Britain's assump- 

 tion of power over the ojien ocean, she can not with consistency decline. 

 Great Britain xn-escribed 8 leagues at St. Helena; but the obvious 

 necessities in the Behring Sea will, on the basis of this precedent, justify 

 20 leagues for the i^rotection of the American seal fisheries. 



The United States desires only such control over a limited extent of 

 the waters in the liehring Sea, for a ])art of each year, as will l)e sulfi- 

 cient to insure the ])rotection of the fur-seal lisheries, already injuri'd, 

 possibly, to an irreparable extent by the intrnsi<m of Canadian vessels, 

 sailing with the encouragement of Great Britain and protected by her 

 flag. The gravest wrong is committed Avhen (as in many instances is 

 the case) American citizens, refusingobedience to the laws of their own 

 country, have gone ijito partnership with the British flag and engaged 

 in the destruction of the seal fisheries which belong to the United States. 

 So general, so notorious, and so shamelessly avowed has this practice 

 become that last season, according to thereport ol' the AnuM'ican consul 

 at Victoria, when the intrnders assembled at Unalaska on the 4th of 

 July, ]»revious to entering Behring Sea, the day was celebrated ina])a- 

 triotic and spirited manneil)y i\w Anu'rican citizens, who, at the time, 

 were ])r()tected by the British fiag in their violation of the laws of their 

 own country. 



\\\\\\ such agencies as these, devised by theHomini(Ui of Canada and 

 jtrotected by the flag of Great Britain, American rights and interests 

 liave, within the i):ist four years, been damaged to the extent ot mil 

 lions of dollars, with no correspoiiding gain to those who caused the 

 loss. From 1870 to 1890 the seal fisheries — carefully guarded and pre- 



