SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. Ill 



And then they were admonished as follows: 



I need scarcely remind you that, your invrstigai ion should be carried on with strict 

 impartiality, that you should neglect no sources of information which may he likely 

 to assist you in arriving at a sound conclusion, and that great care should he taken, 

 to sift the evidence that is brought before you. 



It is equally to the interest of all the (Governments concerned in the sealing industry 

 that it should be protected from all serious risk of extinction in consequence of the 

 use of wasteful and injudicious methods. (British Bering Sea Commissioners' report,, 

 p. 2.) 



To which they replied as follows: 



To the (Jut'en'* M<t*t l-'.j't-cUcnt Majexhj: 



May it> please Your Majesty, we, Your Majesty's commissioners, appointed to under- 

 take an inquiry ihto the condition of seal life and the precautions necessary for pre- 

 venting the extermination of the fur-seal species in Bering Sea and other parts of 

 the North Pacific Ocean, beg to submit the following report. 



Wherefore, in carrying out the terms of our commission, it has been our object to 

 acquire and record the most complete information available, in order to promote, in 

 the true interests of all concerned an equitable, impartial, and mutually satisfac- 

 tory adjustment of the questions at issue. ( British Bering Sea ( 'ommissiouers' leport, 

 p. 30 



When Mr. Elliott was urging the appointment of a joint commission, 

 as the remedy for all our troubles on the seal islands, he addressed the 

 Secretary of State as follows: 



NOVKMBKK 22, 1890. 



MY DKAR MR. BLAINK: We must take some of the best British repre- 



sentation up to the islands and let it see the wreck and ruin thereon. 



I have no fear of the result; these Englishmen will return our friends, and work 

 in harmony with us in the labor of saving these anomalous interests from their 

 impending ruin. 



I believe that subsequent events have shown him that his faith was 

 misplaced, to say the least, unless we can fully appreciate the kindness 

 with which they propose to prohibit all killing on the islands and assume 

 the whole burden themselves. 



Had they suggested the prohibition of all pelagic sealing and an even 

 division between the nations interested of the burdens, expenses, and 

 proceeds resulting from a strict and constant protection of the breeding 

 islands there would be some semblance of justice and right as well as a 

 desire to perpetuate the seals indefinitely; but the suggestion that the 

 United States shall be forbidden TO kill seals ashore and that the islands 

 must be turned into breeding grounds for the sake of the pelagic sealer 

 is so repugnant to common sense and decency that were not the com- 

 missioners' report at my hand I should not believe they could have been 

 guilty of making such a suggestion under any circumstances, but 

 especially under the plea of protecting and perpetuating the fur seals. 



Had they attempted to prove the wastefulness of present methods, 

 or had they quoted the testimony of one honest and disinterested per- 

 son to show that American management of the seals on the islands had 

 ever been inimical to their increase and improvement, there would be 

 some excuse for the suggestions offered, but it was beyond their power 

 to produce testimony of that sort. 



Therefore, I deem the remarks of the American counsel at Paris on 

 this point as most just and opportune, and as they express my own views 

 much better than my own feeble w^ords can possibly do it I quote them 

 as follows : 



We are reluctant to make any reference to motives; but where opinions are, as in 

 this case, made evidence, the question of good faith is necessarily relevant. Why is 

 it that these commissioners have chosen to disregard the plain dictates of reason 

 and natural laws which they were bound to accept, and to recommend some cheap 

 devices in their place, when they so clearly perceived those dictates? We are not 

 permitted to think that this was in conscious violation of duty, if any other explana- 



