ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 349 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 



Washington, November 21, 1895. 



SIR: The Russian charge" d'affaires has formulated inquiries of which 

 you spoke to me the other day and presents them in the paper herewith 

 inclosed. 



I should be glad of any suggestions from you as to the answers to be 

 made. 



With the answers please return queries and oblige, 

 Respectfully, yours, 



RICHARD OLNEY. 

 Hon. CHARLES S. HAMLIN, 



Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. 



[Inclosure.] 



RUSSIAN IMPERIAL LEGATION, Washington. 



Queries : 



(1) Was the United States Government aware that in the act of Parliament issued 

 by the Government of Great Britain in pursuance of the Bering Sea award act in 

 1894 was omitted the clause 6 of the following regulations on seal fisheries: 



"If during the period and within the seas specified by the order a British ship is 

 found having on board thereof iishing or shooting implements or seal skins or bodies 

 of seals, it shall lie on the owner or master of such ship to prove that the ship was 

 not used or employed in contravention of this act." 



(2) In considering the best way to protect the seal fisheries the United States 

 Government thought desirable, pending the investigations of the seal fisheries by a 

 special commission, to extend the rules of the Paris award to the seal fisheries on the 

 seas lying to the north of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude and 'prohibit 

 entirely the seal fisheries in the Bering Sea proper. 



Is that prohibition of the seal fisheries in the Bering Sea intended for the purpose 

 of protecting the breeding area of the seal, or has it any other purpose? 



NOVEMBER 29, 1895. 



SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communi- 

 cation of the 21st instant, with which was inclosed certain inquiries 

 from the Russian charge d'affaires, concerning the seal fisheries (North 

 Pacific) act, 1893 and 1895, and certain suggestions on the part of this 

 Government as to extending the regulations of the Paris award to the 

 shores of Asia, and in reply to state in answer to said inquiries, and in 

 the order of their submission: 



(1) The United States Government is aware that in the act of Par- 

 liament known as seal fishery (North Pacific) act 1895, clause 6 of the 

 earlier act k.nown as seal fishery (North Pacific) act 1893, was omitted. 



The Treasury Department on June 25, 1895, received a copy of the 

 proposed seal fishery (North Pacific) act 1895 from the Secretary of 

 State, and on July 3, 1895, called attention to this significant omission, 

 and received from you a copy of your letter of July 8, addressed to 

 James R. Roosevelt, charge d'affaires at London, in which you expressed 

 deep regret that the clause referred to should not have been reenacted, 

 and the earnest hope that some means may be provided yet whereby 

 this omission may be remedied. 



(2) The purpose of this Department in recommending verbally to the 

 Secretary of State, through Assistant Secretary Hamlin, that the exist- 

 ing Paris award regulations be extended along the line of the thirty- 

 fifth degree of north latitude to the shores of Asia, and that in addition 



