818 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
nation the Report of a Joint Commission to be appointed by the respective Govern- 
ments shall be laid before them, with such other evidence as either Government 
may submit. ‘ 
“The Contracting Powers furthermore agree to co-operate in securing the adhesion 
of other Powers to such Regulations.” 
In your note of the 3rd instant you proposed, on behalf of Her Majesty’s Govern- 
ment, the following Additional Article: 
‘It shall be competent to the Arbitrators to award such compensation as, in their 
judgment shall seem equitable, to the subjects and citizens of either Power who shall 
be shown to have been damnified in pursuit of the industry of sealing by the action 
of the other Power.” 
The President cannot give his assent to this form of submitting the question of 
compensation. It entirely omits notice of the important fact, that the Government 
of the United States, as the owner of the seal fisheries on the Pribyloff Islands, has 
interests which have been injuriously affected by the pelagic sealing of which com- 
plaint has been made in this correspondence. 
This Government has derived a very large annual income from this property, and 
this income has, in the opinion of the President, been very seriously impaired and 
imperilled by the destruction of the seal in the sea while passing to and from the 
breeding grounds on these islands. The Government of Her Majesty has directly 
interposed to support the Canadian sealers, and will not, the President assumes, 
desire to avoid responsibility for any damages which have resulted to the United 
States or to its citizens if it shall be found by the Arbitrators that the pursuit of 
seals by these Canadian vessels in the sea was an infraction of the rights and an 
injury to the property of thisGovernment. The proposal submitted by you distinctly 
limits the liability of Her Majesty’s Government in case of a decision in favour of 
the United States to compensation to the citizens of this country. 
It will be apparent to Lord Salisbury that whatever damages have resulted from 
pelagic sealing as pursued by vessels flying the British flag have accrued to the United 
States or to its lessees. The President does not doubt that the purpose of Her Maj- 
esty’s Governmentin the proposal under diseussion was to secure tothe party injured 
equitable compensation for injuries resulting from what may be found by the Arbi- 
trators to have been the unlawful and injurious act of either Government. 
From the note of Lord Salisbury of the 21st February, to which reference has been 
made, I quote the following: 
“There is one omission in these questions which I have no doubt the Government | 
of the President will be very glad to repair, and that is the reference to the 
52 Arbitrator of the question what damages are due to the persons who have been 
injured in case it shall be determined by him that the action of the United 
States in seizing British vessels has been without warrant in international law.” 
I am directed by the President to propose the following 7th and final clause in the 
basis of arbitration: 
“7, It shall be competent to the Arbitrators to award such compensation as in their 
judgment shall seem equitable to the subjects or citizens of Great Britain whose 
vessels may have been seized by the United States in the Behring’s Sea, if such seiz- 
ures shall be found by the Arbitrators to have been unwarranted, and it shall also 
be competent to the Arbitrators to award to the United States such compensation as 
in their judgment shall seem equitable for any injuries resulting to the United States 
or to the lessees from the Government of the privilege of taking seals on the Pribyloff 
Islands, by reason of killing seals in the Behring’s Sea by persons acting under the 
protection of the British flag outside of the ordinary territorial limits and since the 
ist day of January, 1886, if such killing shall be found to have been an infraction of 
the rights of the United States.” 
It being understood that an arrangement for a Joint Commission is to be made 
contemporaneously with the conclusion of the terms of arbitration, I am directed 
by the President to propose the following separate agreement: 
“Hach Government shall appoint two Commissioners to investigate conjointly 
with the Commissioners of the other Government all the facts having relation to 
seal life in behring’s Sea, and the measures necessary for its proper protection and 
preservation. 
“The four Commissioners shall, so far as they may be able to agree, make a joint 
Report to each of the two Governments, and they shall also report, either jointly or 
severally, to each Government on any points upon which they may be unable to agree. 
“The Reports shall not be made public until they shall be submitted to the Arbi- 
trators, or it shall appear that the coutingeney of their being used by the Arbitrators 
cannot arise.” 
IT have, &c. 
(Signed) WILLIAM IF’, WHARTON. 
sgmisctenta 
