54 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



powers is necessary for their adequate protection." To make 

 these conclusions more effective, the three powers entered into 

 a written agreement, calling for an international conference 

 to devise a new system of laws for the protection of the seals. 

 The agreement also prohibited pelagic sealing, so far as their 

 own subjects were concerned, until such prospective regula- 

 tions could be brought into force. This convention, signed 

 November 6, 1897, was of course made conditional upon 

 the adherence*of Great Britain ; accordingly the instrument 

 was at once presented to the British Government, with an 

 urgent plea for its consent to become a party thereto. 

 (^Without awaiting a reply from Great Britain, Congress 

 passed a bill in December, 1897, prohibiting the killing of 

 seals by American citizens in the North Pacific Ocean, except 

 as they may be taken by the North American Commercial 

 Company on the Pribyloff Islands/) The act also prohib- 

 ited the importation of sealskins into the United States, 

 whether "raw, dressed, dyed, or manufactured," except 

 under most burdensome conditions. The object of this legis- 

 lation was not only to prevent Americans from engaging in 

 pelagic sealing, but also to discourage this practice in others 

 by destroying the American market for the skins. Its authors 

 no doubt hoped to force Great Britain into a treaty prohibit- 

 ing pelagic sealing. 



Lord Salisbury declined to give his sanction to the provi- 

 sional treaty of Russia, Japan, and the United States. He 

 wrote to Mr. Hay (December 23, 1897) " ... in the opinion 

 of Her Majesty's Government, no useful purpose could be 

 served by their taking into consideration at the present 

 moment the question of their adhesion to this convention " ; 

 and again (January 12, 1898), " It has been the wish of 

 Her Majesty's Government that an agreement should be 

 arrived at on the seal fishery question as well as on other 

 matters pending between the United States and Canada, but 

 they cannot in the present circumstances adhere to the con- 

 vention, which would inflict a serious injury on Her Majesty's 

 Canadian subjects, and which in their opinion is not required 

 for the protection of the seals in the open sea, while it makes 



