528 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
For several weeks following the 28th April, there were many calls by the American 
Chargé at the Foreign Office to learn whether ‘Canada had been heard from.” He 
called alone, and called in company with the Russian Ambassador. Finally, on the 
20th June, Lord Salisbury told bim that an urgent telegram had been ‘sent to 
Canada a week ago with respect to the delay in its expedition,” and that a reply had 
been ‘‘received by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, saying that the matter 
will be taken up immediately.” Mr. White, relying entirely upon these assurances, 
ventured to ‘hope that shortly after Mr. Phelps’ return the British Government will 
be in a condition to agree upon the terms of the proposed Convention.” 
Mr. Phelps returned to London on the 22nd June, two days after Mr. White’s 
interview with Lord Salisbury, and immediately after the urgent telegram had been 
sent to Canada. 
On the 28th July, Mr. Phelps had received no assurances from Lord Salisbury, and 
telegraphed the Department of State his “fear that owing to Canadian opposition 
we shall get no Convention.” Ina despatch to his Government of the 12th Septem- 
ber he related having had interviews with Lord Salisbury respecting the Conven- 
tion, which he says had been ‘‘ virtually agreed upon except in its details.” Mr. 
Phelps goes on to say: ‘‘The consideration of it his been suspended for communica- 
tion by the British Government with the Canadian Government, for which purpose 
an interval of several months had been allowed to elapse. During this long 
477 interval theattention of Lord Salisbury had been repeatedly called to the sub- 
ject by the American Legation, and on those occasions the answer received 
from him was that no reply from the Canadian authorities had arrived!” 
Mr. Phelps proceeds in the despatch of the 12th September to say: ‘‘I again 
pressed Lord Salisbury for the completion of the Convention, as the extermination 
of seals by Canadian vessels was understood to be rapidly proceeding. His Lord- 
ship, in reply, did not question the propriety or the importance of taking measures 
to prevent the wanton destruction of so valuable an industry, in which, as he 
remarked, England had a large interest of its own, but his Lordship stated that the 
Canadian Government objected to any such restrictions, and that until its consent 
could be obtained Her Majesty’s Government was not willing to enter into the Con- 
vention.” It was thus finally acknowledged that the negotiations into whieh Lord 
Salisbury had cordially entered, and to which he had readily agreed, even himself 
suggesting some of its most valuable details, was entirely subordinated to the judg- 
ment and desire of the Canadian Government. This Government cannot but feel that 
Lord Salisbury would have dealt more frankly if in the beginning he had informed 
Minister Phelps that no arrangement could be made unless C anada concurred in it, 
and that all negotiation with the British Government direct was but a loss of time. 
When you, Mr. Minister, arrived in this country a year azo, there seemed the best 
prospect for a settlement of this question, but the Russian Minister and the Ameri- 
san Secretary of State have had the experience of Mr. Phelps and the Russian 
Ambassador in London repeated. In our early interviews, there seemed to be as 
ready a disposition on your part to come to a reasonable and friendly adjustment as 
there certainly has always been on our part to offer one. You will not forget an 
interview between yourself, the Russian Minister, and myself, in which the lines for 
a close season in the Behring’s Sea laid down by Lord Salisbury were almost exactly 
repeated by yourself, and were inscribed on Maps which were before us, a copy of 
which is in the possession of the Russian Minister, and a copy also in my possession. 
A prompt adjustment seemed practicable, an adjustment which I am sure would have 
been honourable to all the countries interested. No obstacles were presented on the 
American side of the question. No insistance was made upon the Behring’s Sea as 
mare clausum; no objection was interposed to the entrance of British ships at all 
times, on all commercial errands, through all the waters of the Behring’s Sea. But 
our negotiations, as in London, were suddenly broken oft for many weeks by the 
interposition of Canada. When correspondence was resumed on the last day of 
April, you made an offer for a Mixed Commission of Experts to decide the questions 
at issue. 
Your proposition is that pelagic sealing should be prohibited in the Behring’s Sea 
during the months of May, June, October, November, and December, and that there 
should be no prohibition during the months of Jul y, August, and September. Your 
proposition involved the condition that British vessels should be allowed to kill seals 
within 10 miles of the coast of the Pribylov Islands. Lord Salisbury’s proposition 
of 1888 was that, during the same months for which the 10-mile privilege is now 
demanded, no British vessel hunting seals should come nearer to the Priby loy Islands 
than the 47th parallel of north 1: ititnde about 600 miles. 
The open season which you thus select for killing is the one when the areas around 
the breeding islands are most crowded with seals, and especially crowded with female 
seals, going forth to secure food for the hundreds of thousands of their young, of 
whic h “they have recently been delivered. The destruction of the females, which, 
according to expert testimony, would be 95 per cent. of all which the sealing ves- 
