APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 5038 
T am to request that, in laying this letter before Secretary Lord 
Knutsford, you will move him to furnish Lord Salisbury with any 
observations he may have to offer in regard to the modifications in Mr, 
Blaine’s proposal suggested by the Canadian Government. 
Tam, &c, 
(Signed) P. CURRIE. 
No. 326. 
Sir J. Pauncefote to the Marquis of Salisbury.—( Received May 8.) 
WASHINGTON, April 29, 1890. 
My Lorp: With reference to my despatch of the 11th instant, I have 
the honour to inclose copy of a letter which I have this day addressed to 
Mr. Blaine inclosing the draft of a Convention which I have prepared 
for the settlement of the Behring’s Sea Fisheries question, and which 
has the approval of the Canadian Government. 
I have, we. 
(Signed) JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE, 
[Inclosure lin No. 326.] 
Sir J. Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine. 
WASHINGTON, April 29, 1890. 
DEAR Mr. Buarne: At the last sitting of the Conference on the Behring’s Sea Fish- 
eries question you expressed doubts, after reading the Memorandum of the Canadian 
Minister of Marine and Fisheries, which by your courtesy has since been printed, 
whether any arrangement could be arrived at that would be satisfactory to Canada. 
You observed that the proposal of the United States had now been two years before 
Her Majesty’s Government, that there was nothing further to urge in support of it, 
and you invited me to make a counter-proposal on your behalf. To that task I have 
most earnestly applied myself, and while fully sensible of its great difficulty, owing 
to the conflict of opinion and of testimony which has manifested itself in the course 
of our discussions, I do not despair of arriving at a solution which will be satis- 
factory to all the Governments concerned. It has been admitted from the commence- 
ment that the sole object of the negotiation is the preservation of the fur-seal species 
for the benefit of mankind, and that no considerations of advantage to any particu- 
lar nation or of benefit to any private interest should enter into the question. 
Such being the basis of negotiation, it would be strange, indeed, if we should fail 
to devise the means of solving the difficulties which have unfortunately arisen. I 
will proceed to explain by what method this result can, in my judgment, be attained. 
The great divergence of views which exists as to whether any restrictions on pelagic 
sealing are necessary for the preservation of the fur-seal species, and, if so, as to the 
character and extent of such restrictions, render it impossible, in my opinion, to 
arrive at any solution which would satisfy public opinion either in Canada or Great 
Britain, or in any country which may be invited to accede to the proposed arrange- 
ment, without a full inquiry by a Mixed Commission of Experts, the result of whose 
labours and investigations in the region of the seal fishery would probably dispose 
of all the points in dispute. 
As regards the immediate necessities of the case, I am prepared to recommend to 
my Government, for their approval and acceptance, certain measures of precaution 
which might be adopted provisionally and without prejudice to the ultimate decision 
on the points to be investigated by the Commission. These measures, which I will 
explain later on, would effectually remove all reasonable apprehension of any deple- 
tion of the fur-seal species, at all events pending the Report of the Commission. 
It is important in this relation to note that while it has been contended on the 
part of the United States Government that the depletion of the fur-seal species has 
already commenced, and even that the extermination of the species is threatened 
within a measureable space of time, the latest Reports of the United States Agent, 
Mr. Tingle, are such as to dissipate all such alarms, 
