APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 95 
despatches of the 2nd April, 1887, and of the 6th May, 1887, respec- 
tively, of the owners of the American ships which were seized on similar 
erounds, will come on for hearing, and whether any arrangement has 
been, or can now, in your opinion, advantageously be made between the 
owners of the British and American vessels on the one side and the 
Government of the United States on the other, that one of these cases 
should be regarded as a test case, by which, in so far as the American 
legal Tribunals are concerned, the remaining cases might be held to be 
concluded. 
it must, however, be clearly understood that any such arrangement, 
if made, would only affect the legal remedies which were open to the 
masters and owners of these vessels in the American Courts, and would 
in no degree limit the right of Her Majesty’s Government, after aJl such 
legal remedies were considered to be exhausted, to intervene through 
diplomatic channels and on international grounds on behalf of such 
masters or owners. 
It is presumed that the records of the proceedings in the cases of the 
seizures of the British schooners which accompanied your despatch 
were communicated officially to Her Majesty’s Legation, and, if so, 
I request that you will furnish me with a copy of the note by which 
they were accompanied. 
Iam, &e. 
(Signed) SALISBURY. 
No. 48. 
Sir L. West to the Marquis of Salisbury.—( Received August 26.) 
WASHINGTON, August 15, 1887. 
My Lorp: In obedience to the instruction contained in your Lord- 
ship’s despatch of the i0th instant, l informed the Secretary of 
78 State that three British Columbian schooners had been seized in 
Behring’s Sea by the United States cruizers a long distance from 
Sitka, and that several other vessels were in sight being towed in. I 
also intimated to Mr. Bayard that, in view of the assurances given in 
his note of the 3rd February last, Her Majesty’s Government had 
assumed that, pending the conclusion of discussions between the two 
Governments on general questions involved, no further seizures would 
be made by order of the United States Government. Copy of my note 
is herewith inclosed. I have likewise the honour to inclose to your 
Lordship copy of a note which I have received in reply to the above 
communication, in which Mr. Bayard states that he can discover no 
ground whatever, from the expressions contained in his note referred 
to, for the assumption by Her Majesty’s Government that it contained 
any such assurances, but that he will ascertain without delay whether 
the circumstances attendant upon the cases of the seizures in question 
are the same as those which induced the Executive to direct the release 
of the vessels mentioned in his note of the 5rd February. 
I have, &e. 
(Signed) L. 8. SAC VILLE WEST. 
