860 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
responsibility for the acts of the revenue-vessels. But, with a view to remove what 
seems to be the last point of difference in a discussion which has been very much 
protracted, the President is willing to modify his proposal, and directs me to offer 
the following 46 
The claim of the United States was stated in my note of the 23rd July accompany- 
ing the proposal, and the President does not see how the claims of the respective 
Governments could be more fairly or fully submitted. This Government proposes to 
submit to the Arbitrators the question whether Great Britain is liable for the injury 
done to the seal fisheries, the property of the United States, by the Canadian vessels 
that have, under the stimulation and support of the British Government, been for 
several years engaged in the Behring’s Sea. The proposal of this Government was 
that the Arbitrators should consider and decide such claims in accordance with 
justice and equity and the respective rights of the High Contracting Parties. 
The President is unable to accept the last suggestion which you make in your note, 
as it seems to him to be entirely ineffectual. ‘The facts connected with the seizure 
of Canadian sealers by the revenue-vessels of the United States on the one hand, and 
with the invasion of the sea and the taking of seals by the Canadian sealers on the 
other, are well known, and doubtless could be agreed upon by the respective Goy- 
ernments without difficulty. It is over the question of liability to respond in dam- 
ages for these acts that the controversy exists, and the President can see no other 
course for this Government than to insist upon the submission of the question of the 
liability of Great Britain for the acts it complains of to Arbitrators. This Govern- 
ment does not insist that Great Britain shall admit any liability for the acts com- 
plained of, but it may well insist, if this arbitration is to result in any effectual 
settlement of the differences between the two Governments, that the question of 
Great Britain’s liability shall go to the Arbitrators for decision. 
If you have any suggestions. to make in support of the objection that the proposal 
made by the President assumes a liability on the part of Great Britain, the President 
will be very glad to receive them and, if necessary, to reconsider the phraseology ; 
but upon a ‘careful and critical examination of the proposition he is unable to see 
that the objection now made has any support in the terms of the proposal. 
Ihave, &c. 
(Signed) WILLIAM F, WHARTON. 
No. 186. 
Sir G. Baden-Powell to the Marquis of Salisbury.—( Received October 9.) 
[Telegraphic.] 
VICTORIA, October 8, 1891. 
Commission to-day returned Esquimalt. Await instructions in Vie- 
toria. 
No. 137. 
Sir J. Pauncefote to the Marquis of Salisbury.—( Received October 12.) 
[Telegraphic.] 
WASHINGTON, October 12, 1891. 
The United States Government urgently press for a reply to their 
note of 23rd July. Shall I send official reply in the sense of my private 
letter of 26th August to Mr. Wharton? 
The middle course therein proposed, which I presume is acceptable 
to Canada, might yet be accepted by the President, in order to arrive 
at a settlement. 
