MODUS VIVENDI OF 1892. 359 



signing of that agreement it became, in liis opinion, a matter of obliga- 

 tion, 



Dnriiig tlie season of 18{>1, notwitlistanding the restrictions resnlting 

 from tlie modus adopted, the Canadian sealers took in the Behring Sea 

 alone 28,708 skins, or nearly four times as many as tlie restricted catch 

 upon our island. This Clovernment is now advised that 51 vessels from 

 British Columbia and 16 from Nova Scotia have sailed or are about to 

 sail for the Behring Sea to engage in taking seals. This large increase 

 in the fleet engaged makes it certain, in the absence of an etfective re- 

 strictive agreement, that the destruction of seal life duriisg this season 

 by pelagic sealing will be unprecedented, and will, in the opinion of our 

 Commissioners, so nearly destroy the value of the seal fisheries as to 

 make what will remain of so little value as scarcely to be a worthy sub- 

 ject for an international arbitration. 



The proposition of Lord Salisbury to prohibit the killing of seals at 

 sea "within a zone extending to not more than 30 nautical miles 

 around the Pribilof Islands" is so obviously inadequate and so impos- 

 sible of execution that this Government can not entertain it. In the 

 early part of tlie discussion of the subject of a modus for last year, this 

 nietliodwas tentatively suggested among others in conversation between 

 yourself and Mr. Blaine. But it was afterward in eifect agreed by both 

 Governments to be inadequate, and was not again referred to in the 

 correspondence. In the memorandum furnished by you with your note 

 of June 6, you say : 



Lord Salisbury points out that if seal-hunting be prohibited on one 

 aide of a purely imaginary line drawn in the open ocean, while it is per- 

 mitted on the other side of the line, it will be impossible in maiiy cases 

 to i)rove unlawful sealing or to infer it from the possession of skins or 

 fishing tackle. 



This was said with reference to the water boundary of our purchase 

 from Eassia, but is quite as applicable to the oO-mile zone which lie 

 now suggests. The prevalence of fogs in these waters gives increased 

 force and conclusiveness to the point made by his lordship against an 

 imaginary water line. The President can not agree, now that the terms 

 of arbitration have been settled, that the restrictions imposed shall be 

 less than those which both Governments deemed to be a])propriate 

 when it was still uncertain whetlier an early afljustment of the contro- 

 versy was attainable. He therefore hopes that Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment will consent to renew the arrangement of last year with the 

 promptness which the exigency demands and to agree to enforce it by 

 refusing all clearances to sealing vessels for the i)roliibited waters and 

 by recalling from those waters all such vessels as have already cleared. 



This Government will honorably abide the judgment of the high tri- 

 bunal which has been agreed upon, whether that judgment be favorable 

 or unfavorable, and will not seek to avoid a just respousibility for any 

 of its acts which by that judgment are found to be unlawful. But cer- 

 tainly the United States can not be expected to suspend the defense, 

 by such means as are witliin its power, of the property and jurisdic- 

 tional rights claimed by it, pending the arbitration, and to consent to 

 receive them from that tribunal, if awarded, shorn of much of their 

 value by the acts of irresposible persons 

 I have the Injuor to be, etc., 



William F. Wharton, 



Acting Secretary. 



