APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. © 561 
Mr. Blaine was confident that the Senate of the United States would not ratify 
such a Convention as the British Plenipotentiary proposed, nor Congress enact the 
legislation necessary to give it effect. Sir Julian was equally sure that neither the 
British nor the Canadian Parliament would legislate upon the broad lines laid down 
by Mr. Blaine. Still both Plenipotentiaries were agreed upon the principle that 
there should be am effective regulation of the sealing industry, to be attained by 
mutual co-operation. The Russian proposition accorded with that of the United 
States, but the Russian Minister left it to our Government, as the larger proprietor 
of rookeries, to act for both. 
The real trouble lay in the statements and opinions of experts, upon which both 
negotiants necessarily had torely. Tosettle the defects and conflicts of this so-called 
evidence, and to produce a satisfactory basis for a Convention and the legislation 
necessitated by it, a proposal was moved from the British side to assemble a Joint 
Technical Commission to examine, decide, and report what was actually necessary 
to carry out the well-settled intention of the parties. After a very careful and 
deliberate consideration of this proposal, in which the main question was studied 
in every possible aspect, Mr. Blaine gave his adhesion to it. 
At this point the new lessees of the Alaskan Seal Islands intervened. They were 
not willing to put at issue, inany manner of form, the question whether there should 
be any marine sealing in Behring’s Sea, however restricted. To make a long story 
short, they prevailed, but not at the State Department. The control of the negotia- 
tions was taken from Mr. Blaine, and he was only permitted, as the organ of the 
Government, to reject the modus vivendi proposed by the British Government to carry 
the parties safely through the sealing season then close at hand, and report what he 
could learn or guess of the probable action or disposition of Lord Salisbury, The 
project of a Technical Commission was dropped clean out of sight. 
Ordered to use Force. 
The Revenue cutters were ordered to Behring’s Sea, there to enforce within dis- 
puted waters the fall vigour of a Law passed with a view to waters not in dispute, 
and the extension of which Law to the waters in dispute Congress had shrunk from 
as lately as 1889, when the question of such an extension was squarely presented by 
a Bill which went into Conference and became a Law. Inquirers at the Treasury 
Department were informed that the sailing orders to the cutters meant all they said; 
that no secret or supplementary orders would issue in favour of British ves- 
510 sels, and that any such vessel sealing in Behring’s Sea would be seized, relieved 
of its lading and papers, and be dismantled. 
Mr. Blaine knew that the original question at issue had broadened into the larger 
one of an exercise of the right of search in time of peace upon what, with consid- 
erable force of argument and weight of authority, was claimed to bea part of the 
high seas, and without the consent of the friendly Power whose vessels were to be 
subjected to an indignity which the United States had once to gone to war to resent. 
What he knew the new conductors of the negotiations knew necessarily. But they 
scouted the idea that England would do more than protest, and they were not afraid 
of protestation. 
England protests. 
All at once it became known that Lord Salisbury meant to do the very thing he 
was expected not to do, and to protect by force, if necessary, British vessels and 
subjects in Behring’s Sea. The situation was hastily reviewed, and the conclusion 
reached that, upon the record of the case as made since January last, the Govern- 
ment could not afford to go before the world, nor even before the press and people of 
the United States, with a defence of its contemplated policy of violence. 
The Revenue cutters were stopped at Puget Sound to await further orders. The 
negotiations were restored to the charge of the Secretary of State, who impro- 
vised a proposal designed to cover a retreat not necessitated by himself and to put 
the question back to a normal and proper situation. 
There will be no trouble in Behring’s Sea. The claims of the United States have 
been preserved in full vigour, and before the opening of another sealing season-a 
settlement will be reached honourable and advantageous to the United States. 
Arbitration expected. 
It is expected that within the next ten or twelve days the negotiations will be so 
far advanced that new sailing orders may be issued to the “‘ Rush” and ‘‘ Corwin,” 
which vessels will then resume their interrupted voyage to Behring’s Sea, there to 
perform all the duties required by law, but not to exercise a disputed jurisdiction 
which it is the expectation of the Government to submit to the determination of 
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