MODUS VIVENDI OF 1892. 3G1 



grounds (as a.cfainst tliiity-oiie at the same date last year), and are en- 

 gaged in following up and destroying the seal herds. These vessels 

 will, if not stopped and tiirned back at the passes, go into the Behring 

 Sea and pursue to the very shores of our islands the slaughter of the 

 mother seals seelcing the accustomed rookeries to be delivered of their 

 young. This is a crime against nature. This Government expects to 

 show, if the Arbitration proceeds, that female seals constitute the larger 

 l)er cent of the catch of the pelagic sealers. 



That in view of this serious arid confident contention of this Govern- 

 ment his lordship should assume that another year's suspension of 

 such sealing is not necessary "to prevent an undue diminution of the 

 seal herds" and should insist that pending an arbitration it shall go on, 

 precisely as if no arbitration had l)een agreed upon, is as surprising as 

 it is disappointing. If Her JMajesty's Government so little respects the 

 claims and contentions of this Government as to be unwilling to for- 

 bear for a single season to disregard them, the President can not under- 

 stand why Lord Salisbury should have proposed and agreed to give 

 to those claims the dignity and standing which a reference to a high 

 court of arbitration implies. From the moment an arbitration was 

 agreed upon neither party was at liberty to disregard the contentions 

 of the other. 



It must be assumed that the sincere purpose of the two Governments 

 was to promote peace and good will, but if, pending the Arbitration, 

 either deals with the subject of it solely ui)on the basis of its own con- 

 tention and' in utter disregard of the claims of the other, this friendly 

 end is not only not attained, but a new sense of injury and injustice is 

 added, even if it should be found possible to proceed with an arbitra- 

 tion under such conditions. For it must not be forgotten that if II er 

 Majesty's Government proceeds during this sealing season upon the 

 basis of its contention as to the rights of the Canadian sealers, no choice 

 is left to this Governmeut but to proceed upon the basis of its confident 

 contention that pelagic sealing in the Behring Sea is an infraction of its 

 jurisdiction and property rights. His lordship will hardly tail to see 

 this. Herein, in the opinion of the President, consists the gravity of the 

 present situation, and he is not willing to be found in any degree re- 

 sponsible for the results that may follow the insistence by either Gov- 

 ernment during this season ui)on the extreme rights claimed by it. In 

 his opinion it would discredit in the eyes of the world the two great 

 Governments involved if the paltry profits of a single season should be 

 allowed to thwart or even to disturb the honorable and friendly adjust- 

 ment of their differences, which is so nearly concluded ; but if his lord- 

 ship shall adhere to his refusal to unite with us in prompt and effective 

 measures to stop pelagic sealing, and shall insist upon free sealing for 

 British subjects, the question, as it affects this Government, is no longer 

 one of pecuniary loss or gain, but one of honor and self-respect. 



This Goverinnent, notwithstanding the fact that its right to take 

 seals upon the Pribilof Islands is undisputed and wholly uninvolved 

 in the Arbitration, has i)ro])osed to take no profit from the island catch, 

 but to limit the taking of seals to the necessities of the natives of those 

 islands, and it can not consent that, with indemnity or without, the 

 contested rights of British subjects to catch seals in the Behring Sea 

 shall be exercised pending the Arbitration. The President finds it 

 difficult to believe that Lord Salisbury is serious in proposing that this 

 Government shall take separate bonds from the owners of about one 

 hundred Canadian sealing vessels to indemnify it for the injury they 

 may severally infiict upon our jurisdiction or property, and must de 

 46 



