APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Ci 
Tam to state, in reply, that Lord Salisbury concurs in the answer 
which Lord Knutsford proposes to return to this communication. 
Iam, We. 
(Signed) P. CURRIE. 
INGsol. 
The Marquis of Salisbury to Sir J. Pauneefote. 
{ Telegraphic. } 
FOREIGN OFFICE, June 11, 1891. 
Behring’s Sea modus vivendi. 
Before you can be authorized to sign the Agreement, as suggested in 
your telegram of yesterday, you must obtain a written assurance in 
some form from the United States Government that they will agree to 
the proposed reference to a Joint Commission of Experts. 
INO: 32; 
Sir J. Pauncefote to the Marquis of Salisbury.—( Received June 11.) 
[ Telegraphic. ] 
WASHINGTON, June 11, 1891. 
Tlost no time in addressing a note to the Acting Secretary of State 
in the sense your Lordship’s telegram of to-day relative to Behring’s 
Sea. 
This afternoon I received a reply in the followin terms: 
The United States Government, recognizing the fact that full and adequate meas- 
ures for the protection of seal life should embrace the whole Behring’s Sea and 
portions of the North Pacific Ocean, will have no hesitancy in agreeing, in connection 
with Her Majesty’s Government, to the appointment of a Joint Commission to ascer- 
tain what permanent measures are necessary for the preservation of the seal species 
in the waters referred to; such an Agreement to be signed simultaneously with the 
Convention for Arbitration, and to be without prejudice to the questions to be sub- 
mitted to the Arbitrators. 
17 A full reply to your note of the 3rd June relating to the terms of arbitration 
will not be long delayed. 
(The note of the 3rd June quoted above conveyed the sense of your 
Lordship’s telegram of the 2nd June.) 
On receipt of this reply, which was handed to me by Mr. Wharton, I 
expressed my regret and disappointment at the stipulation contained in 
it that the Agreement for a Joint Commission should be signed simul- 
taneously with the Convention for Arbitration, as the Commission’s 
appointment might be thereby indefinitely delayed, with the result 
that we should lose this year’s season. He replied that the object 
of the stipulation was to make it clear to the public that the Joint 
Commission had not been accepted by the United States Government 
until it had been definitely agreed that the settlement of the legal 
rights in dispute between the two nations should be referred to arbitra- 
tion. He assured me that the President was most anxious that the 
appointment of the Commission should be early enough to permit 1t to 
commence its work during the season. In order to secure this result 
