MODUS VIVENDI OP 181)1 AND AKL5ITRATI0N. o4D 



under date of March 9, 1890 (iuclosure 4), that one of tlie g-eutleiucii 

 selected by your Government to act as a Oonimissioner on its part has 

 fully counnitted himself in advance on all the questions which are to be 

 submitted to him for investigation and decision. 



I am further informed that the other gentleman named in your note 

 had previous to his selection made public his views on tlio subject, and 

 that very recently he has announced in an address to his Parliamentary 

 constituents that the result of the investigation of this Commission and 

 of the proposed Arbitration would be in lavor of his Government. 



I trust, however, that these circumstances will not impair the candid 

 and impartial investigation and determination which was the object 

 had in view in the creation of the Commission, and that the result of its 

 labors may greatly i)romote an equitable and mutually satisfactory ad- 

 justment of the questions at issue. 



The Commissioners on the pavt of the United States have been in- 

 structed to put themselves in communication with the British Commis- 

 sioners, to tender them an apartment at the Department of State for the 

 joint conference, and, if it shall suit their convenience, to agree Avith 

 them upon an hour for their first conference on Monday next, the 8th 

 instant. 



It is pioper to add that when I indicated to you on the loth ultimo 

 that the British Commissionei', then in London, might come at once to 

 Washington, I sui^posed we should before this date have signed the 

 Arbitration convention, and thus liave enabled the Commissioners to 

 proceed officially to a discharge of their dnties. But as it became nec- 

 essary to await the approval of the draft of that instrument, which you 

 have forwarded to London, I have interposed no objection to preliminary 

 conferences of the Commissioners, anticii:)ating the signature of the con- 

 vention within a very brief period. 

 I have, etc., 



James G. Blaine. 



Sir Julian Fauncefote to Mr. Blaine. 



British Legation, 

 Washington, February 8, 1892. 

 Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge t\\Q receipt of your note of 

 the 6th instant, in which you observe upon the selection made by our 

 respective Governments of the members of the Joint Commission which 

 is about to sit at Washington for the purpose of investigating and re- 

 porting upon the facts having- relation to seal life in Behring Sea with a 

 view to the proposed Arbitration. 



The second paragraph of your note contains the following passage : 



I deem it importaut to direct your atteution to the fact tliat the Governmeut of 

 the United States, in nomiuatiug the Commissionei's on its part, selected gentlemen 

 who were especially fitted by their scientific attainments and who were in nowise 

 disqualified for an impartial investigation or determination of the questions to be 

 submitted to them, by a public declaration of opinion previous or subsequent to 

 their selection. It is to be regretted that a similar course does not seem to have been 

 adopted by the British Government. 



While I have much pleasure in congratulating* your Government on 

 having secured on their side tlie services of two such distinguished 

 gentlemen as Prof. Mendenhall and Dr. Merriam, I must express my 

 surprise and regret that you should have thought fit to refer in terms 

 of disparagement to the choice made by Her Majesty's Government. 



The British Commissioners, Sir George Baden-Powell and Dr. Daw- 



