THE FUR-SEALS AND THE BERING SEA AWARD 53 



sion of their delegates from the proposed technical confer- 

 ence, that " neither of the two countries in question possess 

 any direct interest in the herd frequenting those islands " 

 (PribylofT). 



The folly .of seeking a settlement of the sealing ques- 

 tion, without England's cooperation was at once recognized. 

 The sympathy of third parties might be grateful, but what 

 the United States really desired was England's consent 

 to amend or alter the conditions of a bad contract. The 

 British Government were especially unwilling to discuss the 

 merits or faults of the regulations with Japan or Russia, for 

 the simple reason that neither of these powers was in any 

 manner bound by them. Great Britain very properly declined, 

 furthermore, to confer upon an equal footing with parties out- 

 side the compact. The English Secretary for Foreign Affairs 

 no doubt shrewdly suspected that England would be outvoted 

 in the conferences where Russian, Japanese, and American 

 interests would be identical and likely opposed to those of 

 Great Britain. 



Upon the failure to secure English cooperation, the first 

 impulse of the American commissioners was to abandon the 

 projected conferences altogether, and to recall their invitations 

 from St. Petersburg and Tokio; but the enthusiasm which 

 was displayed by Russia and Japan in the cordial responses 

 of those powers to the American invitation made the with- 

 drawal of the United States from the negotiations extremely 

 awkward, if not impossible. It was also hoped by Mr. Foster 

 and Mr. Hamlin that England might yield at the last moment 

 and send a diplomatic representative to the proposed conven- 

 tion. This hope proved a disappointment, fo^ the conference 

 opened in Washington (October, 1-0> with the vacant 

 chair of the English delegate foreboding an impotent conclu- 

 sion to the meetings.} 



The agents of the three powers (Russia, Japan, and the 

 United States), soon came to unanimous conclusion that 

 under existing regulations the fur-seals inhabiting the North 

 Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea were "threatened with extinc- 

 tion, and that an international agreement of all the interested 



