928 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
[Inclosure 2 in No. 226.] 
Sir J. Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine. 
WASHINGTON, February 6, 1892. 
Sir: Ihave the henour to acknowledge the receipt of your note dated the 4th 
February (but only delivered yesterday evening), in which you inform me that the 
President has appointed Mr. Mendenhall and Mr. Merriam Commissioners, on the 
part of the Government of the United States, on the Joint Commission therein 
referred to. 
Sir George Baden-Powell and Professor Dawson, whom I had the honour to present 
to you on the 1st instant, have been duly appointed Commissioners on the part of 
Her Majesty’s Government, and, as I have already stated to you verbally, they are 
furnished with their credentials in due form. 
On the 13th ultimo, at your request, I communicated to the Marquis of Salisbury, 
by telegraph, your desire that the British Commissioners should proceed at once 
to Washington. Accordingly, Sir G. Baden-Powell left England for that purpose by 
the first steamer, and arrived here with Dr. Dawson on the Ist of the month. They 
have been awaiting ever since to be placed in communication with the United States 
Commissioners, and I trust that arrangements will be made for the meeting of the 
Commission on Monday next for the purpose indicated in the last paragraph of 
your note under reply, although the British Commissioners came prepared, not for 
an informal conference, but to proceed officially to business. 
I have, &c. 
(Signed) JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. 
[Inclosure 3 in No. 226.] 
Mr. Blaine to Sir J. Pauncefote. 
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 6, 1892. 
Sir: I am in receipt of your note of this date, in which you give me the official 
notification of the appointment of Sir G. Baden-Powell and Professer Dawson as 
Commissioners on the part of the British Government on the Joint Commission 
created in view of the proposed fur-seal Arbitration. . 
In acknowledging your note, I deem it important to direct your attention to the 
fact that the Government of the United States, in nominating the Commissioners on 
its part, selected gentlemen who were especially fitted by their scientific attainments, 
and who were in no wise disqualified for an impartial investigation and determina- 
tion of the questions to be submitted to them by a public declaration of opinion 
previous or subsequent to their selection. It is to be regretted that a similar course 
does not seem to have been adopted by the British Government. It appears, from a 
document which you transmitted to me under date of the 9th March, 1890 (Inclosure 
4), that one of the gentlemen selected by your Government to act as a Commissioner 
on its part has fully committed himself in advance on all the questions which are to 
[be?] submitted to him for investigation and decision. 
I am further informed that the other gentleman named in your note had, previous 
to his selection, made public his views on the subject; and that very recently he has 
announced, in an address to his Parliamentary constituents, that the result of the 
investigation of this Commission and of the proposed Arbitration would be in favour 
of his Government. 
I trust, however, that these circumstances will not impair the candid and impartial 
investigation and determination which was the object had in view in the creation 
of the Commission, and that the result of its labours may greatly promote an equi- 
table and mutually satisfactory adjustment of the questions at issue. 
The Commissioners on the part of the United States have been instructed to put 
themselves in communication with the British Commissioners to tender them 
148 anapartment at the Department of State for the joint conference, and, if it 
shall suit their convenience, to agree with them upon an hour for their first 
conference on Monday next, the 9th instant. 
It is proper to add that, when I indicated to you on the 13th ultimo that the Brit- 
ish Commissioner then in London might come at once to Washington, I supposed 
that we should before this date have signed the Arbitration Convention, and thus 
have enabled the Commissioners to proceed officially to a discharge of their duties. 
But as it became necessary to await the approval of the draft of that instrument, 
which you have forwarded to London, I have interposed no objection to preliminary 
conferences of the Commissioners, anticipating the signature of the Convention 
within a very brief period. 
Ihave, &c. (Signed) JAMES G. BLAINE. 
