MODUS VIVENDI OF 1891 AND ARBITRATION. 301 



Tlie dntios tluis imposed iiimii tlie Company must be discliai<»ed 

 animally with puiK'tuality and exactness. Tlie comfort, possibly tlie 

 safety, of all these human beings, peculiarly helpless when left to them- 

 selves, are dei)endent upon the Company under the lease, and the lessees 

 are paid therefor by the Government in the seal skins which the Com- 

 pany receives for the service. If the Company shall, as you say Lord 

 Salisbury requests, be deprived of all privilege of taking- seals, they 

 certainly could not be compelled to minister to the wants of these 300 

 inhabitants for an entire year. If these islanders are to be left to 

 charity, the North American Company is under no greater obligation to 

 extend it to them than are other citizens of the United States. It evi- 

 dently requires a considerable sum of money to furnish all the supj)lies 

 named in the lease — supplies which must be carried 4,000 miles on a spe- 

 cially chartered steamer. If the lessees are not to be allowed payment 

 in any form for the amount necessary to supjiort these 300 people on the 

 islands, they will naturally decline to expend it. No appropriation of 

 money has been made by Congress for the pu^^pose, and the President 

 can not leave these worthy and innocent people to the hazard of starva- 

 tion, even to secure any form of agreement with Lord Salisbury touch- 

 ing seal life. Seal life may be valuable, but the first duty of the (tov- 

 ernment of the United States in this matter is to protect human life. 



In this exigency the President instructs me to propose to Lord Salis- 

 bury that he concede to the North American Company the right to take 

 a snflficieut number of seals, and no more than sufficient, to recompense 

 them for their outlay in taking care of the natives ; and that, in the 

 phrase of the President, all "commercial killing of seals be prohibited 

 pending the result of arbitration." The Secretary of the Treasury has 

 the right to fix the number necessary to the end desired. After full 

 consideration, he has limited the number to 7,500 to be killed by the 

 Company to repaj'' them for the outlay demanded for the support of the 

 300 people on the Pribilof Islands. He further directs that no females 

 be killed, and that thus the productive capacity of the herd shall not 

 in the slightest degree be impaired. 



This point being fixed and agreed to, the proposed arrangement 

 between the two countries would be as follows: 



The Government of the United States limits the number of seals to 

 be killed on the islands, for purposes just described, to 7,500. 



The Government of the United States guarantees that no seals shall 

 be killed in the open waters of the Eehring Sea by any jjcrson on any 

 vessel sailing under the American flag, or by any American citizen sail- 

 ing under any other flag. 



The Government of Great Britain guarantees that no seals shall be 

 killed in the open waters of the Behring Sea by any person on any vessel 

 sailing under the British flag, and that no British subject shall engage 

 in killing seals for the time agreed upon on any vessel sailing under 

 any other flag. 



These prohibitions shall continue until the 1st day of May, 1892, 

 within which time the arbitrators shall render final award or awards to 

 both Governments. 



These several propositions are submitted for the consideration of 

 Lord Salisbury. The President believes that they are calculated to 

 produce a result at once fair and honoral)le to both Governments, and 

 thus lead to the permanent adjustment of a controversy which has 

 already been left too long at issue. 

 I have, etc., 



James G. Blaine. 



