APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 901 
wreck the whole arrangement. How many maritime Powers, he asked, 
were to be invited to adhere to the Regulations? What prospect was 
there of obtaining their adhesion, seemg that they had declined the 
invitation of Mr. Bayard to join in an international arrangement for 
the protection of the fur-seal fisheries? It had never been suggested 
before in the course of the negotiations that the Regulations to be 
framed should not be obligatory on the two Governments until they had 
received the adhesion of the other Powers. What were Her Majesty’s 
Government prepared to do pending such adhesion? Would they con- 
sent to a cessation of pelagic sealing? To these questions I replied 
that if, after a careful investigation and study by the Joint Commission, 
it should be established by the Commission, or, in case of disagree- 
ment, by the arbitration, that certain Regulations are necessary for the 
preservation of the seal species, it would be unreasonable to doubt that 
the Great Powers would acquiesce at once in those Regulations, or that 
the minor Powers would hesitate to follow their example. 
I pointed out that no International Regulations would be made unless 
the award of the Arbitrators should have previously proclaimed to the 
world that the fur-seal fishery in Behring’s Sea is free to all flags. In 
that case, if the other Powers were, as Mr. Blaine apprehended, to refuse 
their adhesion to the Regulations, the result would be, in the words of 
your Lordship, that the two Governments most interested had simply 
handed over to others the right of exterminating the seals. Her Maj- 
esty’s Government could hardly be expected to place themselves in 
such aposition. They could not stultify themselves by submitting per- 
manently or for any length of time to Regulations which were not 
equally obligatory on other Governments. What they would do, pend- 
ing the adhesion of the Powers, I was not prepared to say, but I 
thought it probable that they would voluntarily observe the Regu- 
125 lations pending the result of the invitation of Great Britain and 
* the United States to the Powers, or so long as circumstances, in 
their judgment, might render it practicable. 
Mr. Blaine said he would send a reply to my note after laying the 
matter before the President and the Cabinet which was then sitting, 
and, in the meanwhile, the signature of the clauses was postponed. 
L have, &c. | 
(Signed) JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. 
Now 179; 
Sir J. Pauncefote to the Marquis of Salisbury.*—( Received December 7.) 
WASHINGTON, November 27, 1891. 
My Lorp: In my despatch of the 23rd instant I transmitted a copy 
of the note which I addressed to Mr. Blaine, informing him of the res- 
ervations which your Lordship had instructed me to make respecting 
clause 6 of the proposed Behring’s Sea Arbitration Agreement, before 
signing the text of the seven clauses as settled in the diplomatic cor- 
respondence. 
I now have the honour to inclose a copy of Mr. Blaine’s reply to that 
note, which I received to-day. 
* Substance telegraphed. 
