APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 791 
the results of the methods which have been pursued in the killing of seals, a suit- 
able person or persons to make the necessary observations. ‘The present and the 
comparative conditions of the rookeries may become an important consideration 
before Arbitrators in a certain event, and the President would not ask that the evi- 
dence upon this subject should be wholly from one side. He is desirous that the 
prohibition of the killing of seals for this season shall be as wide and absolute as 
possible, and will not omit the exercise of any power confided to him by law to pro- 
mote that end. 
He directs me to assure Lord Salisbury that he is extremely desirous to bring to a 
speedy conclusion the pending negotiations for the submission to impartial Ar bitra- 
tors of the points of difference between the two Governments, and re erets that, for 
reasons which have been explained to you, an immediate answer cannot be returned 
to his Lordship’s note upon that subject of the 2nd instant. He feels sure, however, 
that the prompt announcement of an agreement for a modus vivendi for this season, 
while there is yet time to make it mutually effective, will not fail to have a happy 
influence upon the final negotiation. 
It is hoped that authority may be given to you, as the Representative of Her 
Majesty’s Government at this capital, to conclude immediately, upon the passage of 
the Bill now pending in Parliament, the following agreement: 
For the purpose of avoiding irrit: ating differences, and with a view to promote a 
friendly settlement of the questions pending between the Government of Great 
Britain on the one side, and the United States ‘of America on the other, touching the 
rights of the respective nations in the Behring’s Sea, the following agreement is 
made, which shall have no effect to limit or prejudice the rights or claims of either 
Power except as therein expressly stipulated and for the time therein limited: 
1. The Government of Great Britain will prohibit until May 1892 the killing of 
seals in all that part of the Behring’s Sea lying east, eastwardly, or south-eastwardly 
of the line described in Article I of the Convention between the United States and 
Russia, of the 30th March, 1867, and will promptly take such steps as are best calcu- 
lated effectively to insure the observance of this prohibition by the subjects and 
citizens of Great Britain, and all vessels flying its flag. 
2. The Government of the United States will prohibit until May 1892 the killing 
of seals in that part of Belring’s Sea above described, and on the shores and islands 
thereof, the property of the United States (except that 7,500 seals and no more may 
be taken on the islands), and the Government of the United States will promptly 
28 take such steps as are best calculated effectively to assure the observance of 
this prohibition by the citizens of the United States, and the vessels flying 
its flag. 
3. All vessels or persons violating the laws of their respective Governments in this 
regard outside the ordinary territorial limits may be seized and detained by the naval 
or other duly commissioned officers of either of the High Contracting Parties, but 
they shall be handed over as soon as practicable to the ‘authorities of the nation to 
which they respectively belong for trial and for the imposition of the penalties and 
forfeitures provided by law. 
4. In order to facilitate such proper inquiries as Her Majesty’s Government may 
desire to make with a view to the presentation of the case of that Government before 
Arbitrators, and in the expectation that an agreement for arbitration may ultimately 
be reached, it is agreed that a suitable person or persons to be designated by Great 
Britain will be permitted at any time, upon application, to visit or to remain upon 
the seal islands during the present sealing season, for that purpose. 
I have, &c. 
(Signed) W. F. WHARTON. 
No. 48. 
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.—( Received June 18.) 
DOWNING STREET, June 17, 1891. 
Str: With reference to your letter of the 10th instant, I am directed 
by Lord Knutsford to transmit to you a copy of the reply which he 
caused to be returned to the letter from the High Commissioner for 
Canada, forwarding a protest from the British Columbia Board of Trade 
‘against the prohibition of sealing in Behring’s Sea this season. I am, 
at the same time, to transmit to you, to be laid before the Marquis of 
