562 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
some disinterested Power or Sovereign, possibly Pope Leo XIII, as intimated many 
months ago in these despatches. Oe ; $ 
Mr. Blaine gave it as an excuse that he could not visit. Chicago this week, when 
pressed to do so, because of the importance of the Behring’s Sea negotiations now 
favourably progressing, as he said. 
No. 378. 
Sir J. Pauncefote to the Marquis of Salisbury.—( Received July 7.) 
WASHINGTON, June 27, 1890. 
My Lorp: I have the honour to transmit copy of a note which I 
addressed to Mr. Blaine immediately upon the receipt of your Lord- 
ship’s telegram of the 26th instant. 
I trust that it will meet with your Lordship’s approval. 
I have, &e. 
; (Signed) JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. 
[Inclosure in No. 378.] 
Sir J. Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine. 
WASHINGTON, June 27, 1890. 
Sir: I did not fail to transmit to the Marquis of Salisbury a copy of your note of 
the 11th instant, in which, with reference to his Lordship’s statement, that British 
legislation would be necessary to enable Her Majesty’s Government to exclude 
British vessels from any portion of the high seas, ‘‘ even for an hour,” you informed 
me, by desire of the President, that the United States Government would be satisfied 
“if Lord Salisbury would, by public Proclamation, simply request that vessels sail- 
ing under the British flag should abstain from entering the Behring’s Sea during the 
present season.” 
I have now the honour to inform you that I have been instructed by Lord 
511 Salisbury to state to you,in reply, that the President’s request presents con- 
stitutional difficulties which would preclude Her Majesty’s Government from 
acceding to it, except as part of a general scheme for the settlement of the Beh- 
ring’s Sea controversy, and on certain conditions which would justify the assumption 
by Her Majesty’s Government of the grave responsibility involved in the proposal. 
Those conditions are: 
1. That the two Governments agree forthwith to refer to arbitration the question 
of the legality of the action of the United States Government in seizing or other- 
wise interfering with British vessels engaged in the Behring’s Sea, outside of terri- 
torial waters, during the years 1886, 1887, and 1889. 
2. That, pending the award, all interference with British sealing-vessels shall 
absolutely cease. 
3. That the United States Government, if the award should be adverse to them on 
the question of legal right, will compensate British subjects for the losses which 
they may sustain by reason of their compliance with the British Proclamation. 
Such are the three conditions on which it is indispensable, in the view of Her 
Majesty’s Government, that the issue of the proposed Proclamation should be based. 
As regards the compensation claimed by Her Majesty’s Government for the losses 
and injuries sustained by British subjects by reason of the action of the United 
States Government against British sealing-vessels in the Behring’s Sea during the 
years 1886, 1887, and 1889, I have already informed Lord Salisbury of your assur- 
ance that the United States Government would not let that claim stand in the way 
of an amicable adjustment of the controversy, and I trust that the reply which, by 
direction of Lord Salisbury, I have now the honour to return to the President’s 
inquiry, may facilitate the attainment of that object, for which we have so long and 
so earnestly laboured. 
I have, &c. 
(Signed) JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. 
