APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 443 
warding a Minute of the Dominion Privy Council on the subject of the 
Notice published by the United States Governuient calling for tenders 
for the lease of the Alaskan seal fisheries. 
Although, as suggested by the Canadian Government, the granting 
of such a lease as that referred to would be calculated to complicate 
the contemplated negotiations, Lord Knutsford is disposed to think 
that the issue of the Notice need not be held to preclude the commence- 
ment of those negotiations, and his Lordship desires me to suggest 
thata copy of this despatch should be sent to Her Majesty’s Minister at 
Washington, with instructions to communicate it to the United States 
Government, if he sees no objection. 
{Inclosure 1 in No. 284.] 
Lord Stanley of Preston to Lord Knutsford. 
GOVERNMENT House, Ottawa, January 20, 1890. 
My Lorp: With reference to the proposals made by Mr. Bayard for a close season 
for seals in Behring’s Sea, which was dealt with by my Government in the Orders in 
Council, copies of which were forwarded in my despatches of the 3rd August, 1888, 
and of the 11th November, 1889, I have the honour to forward herewith, for your 
Lordship’s information, a copy of an approved Minute of the Privy Council, embody- 
ing a Report of the Minister of Marine and lisheries, in regard to an advertisement 
recently issued by the Secretary of the Treasury for the United States, calling for 
tenders for the exclusive privilege of taking seals on the Islands of St. Paul and 
St. George of the Pribylov group in the Behring’s Sea for a term of twenty years 
from the 1st May, 1890. 
406 Your Lordship will observe that my Government is apprehensive that a 
lease such as that contemplated in the advertisement, under which the 
monopoly which has existed for the past twenty years would be continued regard- 
less of any close season, may interfere with the proposed negotiations for a close 
season. 
lhave, &ce. < 
(Signed) STANLEY OF PRESTON. 
[Inclosure 2 in No. 284.] 
Report of a Committee of the Honourable the Privy Council, approved by his Excellency 
the Governor-General in Council on the 15th January, 1890. 
On a Report dated the 4th January, 1890, from the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, 
submitting in connection with the Minutes of Council of the 14th July, 1888, and 
4th November, 1889, approved by his Excellency the Governor-General, upon the 
subject of the protection of fur-seals in the Behring’s Sea, the appended advertise- 
ment recently issued by the Secretary of the Treasury for the United States of 
America, calling for tenders to be received up to the 25rd January instant for the 
exclusive privilege of taking fur-seals on the Islands of St. Pan] and St. George, of 
the Pribylov group, in the Behring’s Sea, commonly known as tlhe Seal Islands, for 
a term of twenty years from the lst May, 1890. 
The Minister observes, in reference to the Honourable Mr. Bayard’s proposal for 
international action in the establishment of a close season for seals in the Behring’s 
Sea, extending from the 15th April to the 1st November, that the present advertise- 
ment would indicate on the part of the United States authorities the intention to 
continue that monopoly of the seal industry which has existed for the past twenty 
years, regardless of any close season applicable to the breeding grounds or rookeries 
of the seals. 
The Minister notices that the only important difference between the terms of the 
proposed lease and those in the lease held by the Alaska Commercial Company, 
expiring in May 1890, is the limitation in the number of seals to be annually killed, 
which is stated to be 60,000, instead of 100,000, for the first year, the number to be 
fixed by the Treasury Department for succeeding years. 
