[8963 A Joint High Commission 



summer, and to discuss the general situation. Mean- 

 while another commission under direction of the 

 Department of State ^ was selected to deal with the 

 diplomatic phases of the case, the American members 

 being Foster, Hamlin, and myself, with Clark 

 again as secretary. This group, it was arranged, 

 would meet at Washington the following December 

 in conjunction with representatives of Great Britain, 

 Russia, and Japan. 



Mr. Foster, one of our highest authorities on in- Foster and 

 ternational law, was at the same time perhaps the /^''''''^" 

 most sagacious and efficient American diplomatist 

 of his day — a man, moreover, of fine personality 

 in other ways. Following Blaine's resignation from 

 Harrison's Cabinet in June, 1892, he served as Secre- 

 tary of State for the better part of a year. I had 

 known him as the most distinguished graduate of 

 Indiana University, and our relations had long been 

 friendly. Hamlin is a well-known and popular 

 Boston attorney. My acquaintance with him dates 

 from our interview at Stanford the previous spring. 



Conferring together, we agreed that the crux of 

 the American case from beginning to end lay in 

 the defense of the herd against pelagic sealing. 

 For the major part of this, Canadian vessels from 

 Victoria were responsible; but a large contingent 

 went out regularly from San Francisco. The most To end 

 important result of our discussion, therefore, was ^'^^^ 

 an effort to give our contention a better moral 

 status, a result obtained through the passing of a 

 law by Congress prohibiting all killing at sea by 

 American citizens. A second statute attacked the 



' The Commission of Investigation, as already implied, was responsible to 

 the Secretary of the Treasury. 



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