18 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



shores of Alaska or in the Behring Sea, east of the one hundred 

 and ninety-third degree of west longitude, the jury should find 

 the defendants guilty. 



Tn_rlft]iveringr this o.harg-e to the jury, Judge Dawson acted 

 under the advice of the Attorney General in Washington, 

 and the United States was now fully committed to the policy, 

 of maintaining at any cost its position of absolute ownership 

 of the Bering Sea east of the line described in the treaty for 

 the cession of Alaska as marking the western boundary of 

 that dominion. The seizure and condemnation of these three 

 British vessels were immediately followed by a formal protest 

 from the British Minister in Washington, Sir Lionel Sackville- 

 West (letter of October 21, 1886). 



~~Ari issue, accordingly, was squarely presented for future 

 diplomatic negotiations. Pending further discussion, Presi- 

 dent Cleveland very properly ordered all proceedings against 

 the three vessels stopped. The following summer, however, 

 the United States revenue, cutter Richard Rush arrested 

 more British sealing vessel^, the W. P. Sawyard, the Dol- 

 phin, the Grace, the Anna Beck, and the Alfred Adams. 

 These, like the vessels captured the year before, were all 

 taken outside the ordinary zone of marine jurisdiction, and 

 their seizure intensified the feelings of resentment against the 

 United States that had already been manifested in Canada 

 after the condemnation proceedings of the previous year. 

 Another British protest quickly followed (Sackville-West to 

 Bayard, October 12 and 19, 1887), and the question, now 

 fairly launched into the sea of diplomatic discussion, became 

 the subject of a spirited correspondence. 



In the meantime, however, Secretary of State Bayard had 

 made an attempt to find a settlement of the difficulty in an 

 international agreement for the regulation of the fur-seal 

 industry. Notes were addressed to Great Britain, France, 

 Germany, Russia, Japan, Norway and Sweden, inviting those 

 powers to "enter into such arrangement with the Govern- 

 ment of the United States as will prevent the citizens of either 

 country from killing the seals in Bering Sea at such times and 

 places and by such methods as at present are pursued, and 



