46 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



would be almost impossible to secure conviction and forfeiture 

 on the ground of illegal use of weapons. Furthermore, under 

 the procedure necessarily following the seizure of a British 

 vessel the United States officer delivers the vessel, with such 

 witnesses and proof as he can procure, to the senior British 

 naval officer at Unalaska. At the trial no representative of 

 our Government is present, and the British Government must 

 conduct the prosecution and must trust to such proofs and 

 witnesses as the American officer could collect and furnish at 

 the time. Under such circumstances forfeiture of the vessel 

 could not be secured except in the clearest cases of guilt." 



Suspicion also arose that England did not fully meet the 

 United States in the desire and determination to protect the 

 seals, because she had deemed a single war vessel sufficient for 

 the purpose of patrolling the North Pacific and Bering Sea 

 during the closed season of 1894, notwithstanding the fact that 

 the Canadian fleet of sealing schooners was almost twice as 

 large as the American fleet. The United States, on the other 

 hand, had despatched twelve armed vessels to the scene of 

 action, and so zealous had been their commanders in the per- 

 formance of their duties, that a score or more of complaints 

 from outraged shipowners for the too frequent, needless, 

 and fussy overhauling of their schooners were filed in 

 Washington. 



At the close, then, of the first season's sealing operations 

 under the regulations of the Paris award, the " Bering Sea 

 question " again became acute. The most noticeable effect 

 of the enforcement of a closed season upon the American 

 side of the Pacific had been to drive the entire American and 

 Canadian sealing fleets across the ocean during the months of 

 May, June, and July, to take advantage of that favorable 

 period in attacking the Asiatic herds in and about Japanese 

 and Siberian waters. The resulting increase in the slaughter 

 of the Asiatic herds startled Japan and Russia. They imme- 

 diately expressed a desire to have the restrictive measures of 

 the Paris award extended to their side of the Pacific, and a 

 correspondence ensued with that end in view. 



Thoroughly convinced of the inadequacy of the laws 



