APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 517 
No. 340. 
Sir J. Pauncefote to the Marquis of Salisbury.—(Received May 23.) 
[Telegraphic. ] 
WASHINGTON, May 23, 1890. 
With reference to your Lordship’s telegram of to-day’s date, I have 
addressed a note to Mr. Blaine, as instructed by your Lordship. 
No. 341. 
The Marquis of Salisbury to Sir J. Pauncefote. 
FOREIGN OFFICE, May 24, 1890. 
Sir: You will receive by this mail my despatch of the 22nd instant, 
replying to the arguments urged by Mr. Blaine in his note of the 22nd 
January last in defence of the seizure of Canadian vessels by United 
States Revenue cruizers in Behring’s Sea. 
Those argunents were not such as Her Majesty’s Government could 
admit to be valid according to the established principles of international 
law, or sufficient to justify the acts complained of. The reply has been 
for some time in draft; but Her Majesty’s Government were unwilling 
to introduce any unnecessary element of controversy into the negotia- 
tions in which you are engaged for the friendly settlement of the 
467 whole question. I had, therefore, thought that a certain delay in 
the presentation of the despatch would not be disadvantageous. 
The intelligence contained in your telegrams of the 22nd instant as 
to the dispatch of United States cruizers to Behring’s Sea, and the 
instructions with which they are provided, render it necessary that the 
communication should no longer be delayed. I have accordingly to 
request that you will at once place a copy of it in Mr. Blaine’s hands. 
I shall forward to you, as soon as its terms have been approved by 
the Queen and the Cabinet, a formal Protest, to be delivered to Mr. 
Blaine, against any such interference with British vessels outside the 
territorial waters of the United States, as appears to be contemplated 
in the instructions just issued. I need not say that it would be a cause 
of sincere satisfaction to Her Majesty’s Government if a consideration 
of the arguments advanced in my despatch, and of those with which 
you will be able to supplement them, should induce the Government of 
the United States so to limit the action of their cruizers as to remove 
the occasion for such a Protest. 
Iam, &e. (Signed) SALISBURY. 
The Marquis of Salisbury to Sir J. Pauncefote. 
FOREIGN OFFICE, May 29, 1890. 
Str: I received on the 23rd instant, and at once submitted to the 
Queen and the Cabinet, your telegrams of the previous day, reporting 
the instructions issued to the United States Revenue cruizers in Beh- 
ring’s Sea for the approaching fishery season. 
