696 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
The President was so desirous of a prompt response from Lord Salisbury to his 
second proposition, that I ventured to suggest that you request an answer by cable 
if practicable. Especially was the President anxious to receive an answer, which he 
trusted would be favourable, before he should set out on his tour to the Pacific States. 
He left Washington on the night of the 13th April without having heard a word from 
your Government. It was then a full month after he had instructed me to open 
negotiations on the question, and the only probable inference was that Lord Salis- 
bury would not agree to his proposal. 
The silence of Lord Salisbury implied, as seemed not improbable, that he would 
not restrain the Canadian sealers from entering Behring’s Sea, and as all intelligence 
from British Columbia showed that the sealers were getting ready to sail in large 
numbers, the President found that he could not with justice prevent the lessees from 
taking seals onthe Pribyloff Islands. The President therefore instructed the Secretary 
of the Treasury, who has official charge of the subject, to issue to the lessees the 
privilege of killing on the Pribyloff Islands the coming season the maximum number 
of 60,000 seals, subject, however, to the absolute discretion and power of an agent 
appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to limit the killing to as small a number 
as the condition of the herd might, in his opinion, demand. 
7 On the 22nd April, eight days atter the President had left Washington, you 
notifie 1 me when I was absent from the capital that Lord Salisbury was ready 
to agree that all sealing should be suspended pending the result of arbitration. 
On the 23rd April I telegraphed Lord Salisbury’s proposition to the President. 
He replied on the 25th April, expressing great satisfaction at Lord Salisbury’s 
message, but instructing me to inform you that ‘‘some seals must be killed by the 
natives for food;” that ‘‘the lessees are bound under their lease from the Govern- 
ment to feed and care for the natives, making it necessary to send a ship to the 
Pribyloff Islands at their expense;” and that for this service—a very expensive one— 
the ‘“‘lessees should find their compensation in taking a moderate number of seals 
under the lease.” The President expressed his belief that this allowance would be 
readily agreed to by Lord Salisbury, because the necessity is absolute. 
You will remember that when I communicated this proposition from the President 
to you on the evening of Monday, the 27th April, you did not agree to the President’s 
suggestion. On the contrary, you expressed yourself as confident that Lord Salis- 
bury would not accept it; that, in your judgment, the killing of seals must be cut 
off absolutely on the land and in the water; and that it could not be stopped on 
either unless stopped on both. 
The narrative of facts which I have now given, absolutely necessary for clearly 
understanding the position of this Government, brings me to a further statement 
which I am directed by the President to submit. The President refuses to believe 
that Lord Salisbury could possibly maintain the position you have taken when his 
Lordship is placed in full possession of the facts, which I shall now submit to you 
somewhat in detail. 
When the privilege of killing seals on the Islands of St. George and St. Paul in 
Behring’s Sea was leased to the North American Company for a certain sum per skin 
to be paid to the Government, other duties of an onerous, costly, and responsible 
character were imposed upon the Company. 
Under their lease, the Company is obliged ‘‘to furnish to the inhabitants of the 
Islands of St. George and St. Paul annually such quantity or number of dried salmon, 
and such quantity of salt and such number of salt barrels for preserving their neces- 
sary supply of meat, as the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time 
determine.” 
The Company is further obliged to ‘furnish to the inhabitants of these islands 80 
tous of coal annually, and a sufficient number of comfortable dwellings in which 
said natives may reside, and shall keep such dwellings in proper repair.” 
The Company is further obliged ‘‘to provide and keep in repair such suitable school 
houses as may be necessary, and shall establish and maintain during eight months 
of each year proper schools for the education of the children on said islands, the 
same to be taught by competent teachers, who shall be paid by the Company a fair 
compensation, all to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury.” 
The Company is further obliged to “‘maintain a suitable house for religious wor- 
ship, and will also provide a competent physician, or physicians, and necessary and 
proper medicines and medical supplies.” 
The Company is still further obliged ‘‘to provide the necessaries of life for the 
widows and orphans, aged and infirm inhabitants of said islands, who are unable to 
provide for themselves.” 
And it is finally provided that ‘‘all the foregoing agreements shall be done and 
performed by the Company free of all costs and charges to the said native inhabit- 
ants of said islands, or to the United States.” 
And it is made still further the duty of the Company ‘to employ the native 
inhabitants of said islands to perform such labour upon the islands as they are fitted 
