APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 123 
inclosures, respecting the seizure in Behring’s Sea of the British 
schooner “ Alfred Adams.” 
These papers appear to Sir H. Holland to point to a serious state of 
things, which seem to make it necessary that some decided action in 
the matter should be taken by Her Majesty’s Government. And he 
would suggest, for the consideration of Lord Salisbury, whether it 
would not be desirable to instruct Sir L. West, unless he has already 
done so, formally to protest against the right assumed by the United 
States of seizing vessels for catching seals beyond the territorial waters 
of Alaska. 
Iam to add Sir H. Holland makes this suggestion, as Mr. Bayard is 
reported in the newspapers to have stated that no protest against their 
right to seize had been made, and to have assumed, therefore, that Her 
Majesty’s Government did not really dispute it. 
lam, We. (Signed) JOHN BRAMSTON. 
{Inclosure lin No. 70.] 
The Marquis of Lansdowne to Sir H. Holland. 
CITADEL, Quebec, September 26, 1887. 
Sir: Incontinuation of my despatch of the 27th August and in reference to previous 
correspondence, I have the honour to inclose herewith a copy of an approved Minute 
of the Privy Council of Canada, covering copies of a Report of my Minister of 
Marine and Fisheries relating to the seizure and detention of the Canadian sealing 
schooner ‘Alfred Adams,” and of other Canadian sealing vessels by the United 
States authorities in the Behring’s Sea. 
2. The letter directed to the United States District Attorney at Sitka, marked D 
in the Minister’s Report, which came into the possession of my Government under the 
circumstances described in the Declaration of Captain Dyer, of the ‘Alfred 
104 Adams,” has been for warded, together with copies of the papers, to Her Majesty’s 
Minister at Washington. 
3. The circumstances under which the ‘‘Adams” was seized do not differ materially 
from those attending previous seizures in the same waters. I have already laid before 
you the reasons which have led my Government.to protest against the assumption 
that the Statutes under which other seizures, and I presume this also, have been 
made, Statutes governing the conduct of persons fishing within ‘‘the territory of 
Alaska” or ‘in the waters thereof” (vide United States Revised Statutes, 1955, 1956), 
are applicable to the whole of the waters of the Behring’s Sea, and in cases where, as 
in those under discussion, the vessels seized were found fishing at a great distance 
from the nearest land. 
4, I trust that the earnest attention of Her Majesty’s Government will be given to the 
statements contained in the Minister’s Report. No satisfactory explanation has yet 
been given of the action of the United States Government subsequent to Mr. Bayard’s 
announcement of the 3rd lebruary of the present year, when it was stated by him to 
Her Majesty’s Minister at Washington that ‘‘orders had been issued by the Presi- 
dent’s direction for the discontinuance of all pending proceedings, the discharge of 
the vessels referred to, and the release of all persons under arrest in connection 
therewith.” 
5. You will observe from Mr. Foster’s recapitulation of the evidence which he has 
been able to collect. and the documents attached to his Report, that an impression 
prevails upon the spot to the effect that orders such as those described by Sir Lionel 
West were actually issued from Washington. There appears at all events to be 
some reason for believing that a telegram authorizing the release of the vessels then 
under detention was in fact received by the District Judge, and that instructions 
were thereupon issued by him for the purpose of carrying out these orders. The 
circumstances under which those instructions are said to have been subsequently 
rescinded by the District Judge have not unnaturally given rise to the gravest 
suspicion. 
6. The Minister has called attention with great force in his Report to the injury 
sustained by persons engaged in the sealing industry from the suspense and uncer- 
tainty in which they have been kept during the past season owing to the refusal of 
the United States Government to give any explicit assurances as to the treatment 
which they might expect at its hands. 
I have, &c. (Signed) - LANSDOWNE, 
