942 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
of the said Tribunal may be given within the present fishing season. 
Moreover, that both Her Majesty’ s Government and the United States 
Government have made propositions for intermediate Regulations 
restraining the catch of seals in the said waters in case the said Arbi- 
tration Agreement should be ratified. Neither the Arbitration A gree- 
meut norany intermediate Agreement have yet been definitively adopted 
between the two Governments, and whether they are adopted, and at 
what date, is necessarily a matter of uncertainty. But notice is hereby 
given to all sealers proposing to seal in the said waters that they do so 
at their own risk, and after warning of the liability to interruption to 
which they may be exposed in consequence of either of the said 
Agreements. 
No. 243. 
Sir J. Pauncefote to the Marquis of Salisbury.*—( Received March 21.) 
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1892. 
My Lorp: With reference to my telegram of the 8th instant, I have 
the honour to inform your Lordship that I called by request at the State 
Department on Tuesday afternoon, where, owing to the illness of Mr. 
Blaine, I was received by Mr. Wharton, the Acting Secretary of State, 
who put into my hands a note, copy of which is inclosed herewith, con- 
taining the reply of the United States Government to my notes of the 
29th ultimo and 7th instant respectively, on the subject of the renewal 
of the modus vivendi in Behring’s Sea. 
Mr.Wharton informed me at the same time that he had been instructed 
by the President to request me to telegraph the whole of this note to 
your Lordship. 
I pointed out to Mr. Wharton that I could hardly telegraph verbatim 
a note of such great length, and he replied that he thought it would be 
sufficient to telegraph all the leading arguments contained in the note, 
which I promised I would do. 
I have, &e. 
(Signed) JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE, 
101 [Inclosure in No. 243.] 
Acting Secretary Wharton to Sir J. Pauncefote. 
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 8, 1892. 
Sir: Iam directed by the President to say, in response to your two notes of the. 
29th February and 7th March, that he notices with the deepest regret the indisposi- 
tion of Her Majesty’ s Government to agree upon an effective modus for the preserva- 
tion of the seals in the Behring’s Sea pending the settlement of the respective rights 
of that Government and of the Gouernment of the United States in these waters and 
in the fur-seal fisheries therein. 
The United States claims an exclusive right to take seals in a portion of the 
Behring’s Sea, while Her Majesty’s Gov ernment claims a common right to pursue and 
take the seals in those waters outside a 3-mile limit. This serious and protracted 
controversy, it has now been happily agreed, shall be submitted to the determina- 
tion of a Tribunal of Arbitration, and the’ Treaty only awaits the action of the 
American Senate. The judgment of the Arbitration Tribunal cannot, however, be 
reached and stated in time to control the conduct of the respective ‘Governments 
and of their citizens during the sealing season of 1892; and the urgent question now 
* Substance telegraphed, 
