356 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



the memorandum inclosed in my note to Mr. Wharton of June G, 1891, 

 I stated under instructions from my Government that "the suspension 

 of sealing was not a measure which they could repeat another year." 



Her Majesty's Government consented to that measure in consequence 

 of the rumors widely circulated of impending danger to the seal species. 

 But since then the conditions of the fur-seal fishery have been investi- 

 gated on the spot by ex^ierts appointed for that purpose by Her 

 Majesty's Government. Those experts have advised that there is no 

 danger of any serious diminution of the fur-seal species from j^elagic 

 sealing during the present year, and that to renew the prohibition of 

 lielagic sealing for another season would be going far befond the neces- 

 sities of the case. 



Lord Salisbury's proposal of a 30-mile radius around the Pribilof 

 Islands within which no sealing should be allowed is a judicious tem- 

 porary measure of precaution pending the establishment of permanent 

 regulations for the iishery as a whole. It is a somewhat larger pro- 

 posal than that which you originally made to me on the 10th of March, 

 1891, and which was for a similar radius of 25 miles only. 



Tlie reason why you subsequently abandoned that " radius " proposal 

 is stated in your note to me of 4th IMay, 1891. That reason was not 

 that such a radius would be ineffectual, but that "it might possibly 

 l^rovoke conflict in the Behring Sea." 



At that time no act of Parliament had been passed in England to 

 empower Her Majesty's Government to enforce such a measure on Brit- 

 ish vessels, and no doubt there was some danger on that account of it 

 giving rise to difficulties. But it is otherwise now. By the seal Iishery 

 (Behring Sea) act of 1891 (54 Vic, c. 19), Her Majesty is empowered by 

 Order in Council to prohibit under severe penalties the catching of seals 

 by British ships in any part of Behring Sea defined by the order, and 

 therefore the enforcement of the new modus vivendi now proposed by 

 Lord Salisbury would present much less difliculty than was experienced 

 last season in putting the existing one into operation. 



I trust that the above observations which I venture to ofter in further 

 elucidation of t\i(i proposal contained in my note of the U9tli ultimo will 

 satisfy your Government that it is, under the circumstances, a reason- 

 able proposal, and one which will, if acceded to, sufficiently safeguard 

 the interests of both nations during the few months comprised in the 

 next fishery season, and pending the decision of the Arbitrators. 

 I have, etc., 



Julian Pauncefote. 



Mr. Wharton to Sir J. Pauncefote. 



Department of State, 

 Washmgton, March 8, 1892. 

 Sir : I am directed by the President to say, in response to your two 

 notes of February 29 and March 2, that he notices with the deepest 

 regret the indisposition of Her Majesty's Government to agree upon an 

 effective modus for the preservation of the seals in the Bering Sea, 

 pending tlie settlement of the respective rights of that Government and 

 of the Government of the United States in those waters and in the fiu'- 

 seal fisheries therein. The United States claims an exclusive right to 

 take seals in a i)ortion of the Behring Sea, wliile Her J\[ajesty's Govern- 

 ment claims a common right to pursue and take the seals in those 



