730 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN, 
after he has fixed upon the number of seals the lessees shall kill in any. one year, to 
cut down the time to such a date as to make it impossible for them to secure the 
number allowed to be taken. 
The date you fix, the 20th instant, it is true, was named by the Secretary of the 
Treasury on your recommendation, but you received subsequently an order to extend 
the time or ‘‘use your best judgment.” On the receipt of said telegraphic order the 
day before our ship sailed, you told the President of the Company, I. Liebes, and 
myself, that “it would be all right; it was as good as we wanted,” &c., satisfying 
the President of the Company and myself that you would extend the time, other- 
wise we would not have sailed until we received from the Secretary a positive revo- 
cation of that part of his instructions which cut us off on the 20th from killing 
seals. 
You said to-day that seeing that seals were so scarce determined you to stop the 
killing on the 20th, and yet you admit of having ordered Colonel Murray, on St. 
George Island, the Treasury Agent in charge, to stop our agent there from killing. 
This order was issued to Colonel Murray at an early date, before the killing of seals 
had hardly commenced, and it was not known whether they would be few or many. 
The law says the lessees shall give the natives a maintenance out of the taking of the 
sealskins. How can that provision of the law be carried out when the Government 
steps in and stops the lessees from killing when they are taking 1,000 seals a-day? 
By the enforcement of your orders as the Representatives and Agents of the United 
States, you deprive the natives of a maintenance. You deprive the Government of 
large revenue. You cause the North American Commercial Company great loss. 
You turn over to the marauders and other natural enemies of the seals in the water 
many thousands of fine killable merchantable seals, which we could take without 
any detriment whatever to the rookeries. 
We have every reason to believe, from the marked increase of new arrivals of fine 
seals, that if we were allowed by you to continue our killing under the law, we could 
fill our quota of 60,000 seals. Believing this, we will claim damages from the Gov- 
ernment of the United States equal to the loss we sustained by your act limiting the 
time to the 20th instant when we shall cease killing. This limitation of time has 
no precedent in the past twenty years, while the quota for St. George and St. Paul 
Islands was several times changed. The law fixed the time when the killing shall 
cease, but the Secretary can fix the number to be kilied each year—not exceeding 
100,000. 
In view of the foregoing facts, the North American Commercial Company respect- 
fully claim the right to be allowed to proveed with the execution of their business 
under and by virtue of their lease, © 
Iam, &c. 
(Signed) GEO. R. TINGLE, 
Superintendent, North American Commercial Company. 
C. J. Gorr, Esq., 
Treasury Agent in charge of Seal Fisheries. 
OFFICE OF SPECIAL AGENT, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
St. Paul Island, Alaska, July 19, 1890. 
My Drar Str: Your communication bearing date the 18th instant received, and, 
in reply, will say, as a subordinate of the Treasury Department, I do not desire to 
discuss the subject-matter contained in your letter. I respectfully refer you to the 
Honourable William Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, to whom your letter has 
been referred. ; 
Respectfully yours, 
(Signed) CHARLES J. GOFF, 
Treasury Agent in charge of the Seal Fisheries. 
Hon. GEORGE R. TINGLE, 
General Manager, North American Commercial Company. 
