334 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
Bayard that, pending the general discussion of the questions at issue 
between Her Majesty’s Government and that of the United States, no 
further interference should take place with British ships in Behring’s 
Sea at a distance from the shore. 
You will find the record of such an assurance conveyed to me through 
Mr. Phelps in my despatch to Sir L. West of the 3rd April, 1888, and 
Sir C. Tupper informs me that Mr. Bayard gave personally similar 
assurances to him and the other members of the Commission sent to 
Washington. 
Sir J. P auncefote will be prepared to discuss the whole question when 
he returns to Washington in the autumn; but you should point out 
that a settlement will only be hindered should the United States author- 
ities resort to measures of force against British ships beyond the 3-mile 
limit, against which Her Majesty’s Government must necessarily pro- 
test as contrary to the principle of international law, which the United 
States have not only acknowledged, but have themselves firmly and 
publicly maintained. 
1 am, We. 
(Signed) SALISBURY. 
No. 214. 
Mr. Edwardes to the Marquis of Salishury.—(Received by telegraph, 
August 26.) 
NEWPORT, August 26, 1889. 
My Lorp: I had the honour to receive on the 23rd instant your Lord- 
ship’s two telegrams of the 22nd ultimo, instructing me to inform the 
Secretary of State that repeated rumours had of late reached Her 
Majesty’s Government that United States cruizers have stopped, 
301 searched, and even seized British vessels in Behring’s Sea out- 
side the 3-mile limit from the nearest land: that although no 
official confirmation of these rumours had reached Her Majesty 1s Gover n- 
ment, there did not appear to be any reason to doubt their authenticity. 
Your Lordship desired me at the same time to inquire whether the 
United States Government were in possession of similar information, 
and to ask that stringent instructions should be sent at the earliest 
moment, with the view to prevent the possibility of such occurrences 
taking place. 
In speaking to Mr. Blaine on the above subject, your Lordship 
instructed me to remind him that Her Majesty’s Government had 
received last year very clear assurances from Mr. Bayard, at that time 
Secretary of State, that, pending the discussion of the general ques- 
tions at issue, no further interference should take place with British 
vessels in Behring’s Sea, and, in conclusion, to state that Sir J. Paunce- 
fote would be pr epared, on his return to Washington in the autumn, to 
discuss the whole question, adding that Her Majesty’s Government 
wished to point out that a settlement could not but be hindered by 
measures of force on the part of the United States. 
I accordingly left at once for Bar Harbour (Maine), where Mr, Blaine 
has been passing the summer, and on the morning of the 24th instant 
J called on him, and made a communication to him in the above sense. 
