EFFORTS FOE AN INTERNATIONAL ARRANGEMENT. 325 



Art. 9. A holder of a license surrendering his rights under the same or having it expire under 

 the provision of the last clause of article 4 of these regulations shall return at once his license to the 

 proper authorities. 



It will be seen that the above regulations Impose practically no restrictions at all. 

 All the intending sealer or sea-otter hunter has to do is to apply for a license, the 

 application to contain certain information; to fly a special flag; to report for inspection 

 by the police before departure and after return; to insure that the items in the 

 application, which have no other than statistical interest, are still unaltered, and to 

 furnish a report upon the cruise within a certain period. As a matter of fact, the 

 regulations do not in any way regulate or attempt to regulate the hunting, but are 

 simply framed to insure the return of certain statistical data. 



This is rather surprising when we consider that the regulations apply as well to 

 the sea otter as to the fur seal, and that the Japanese Goyernment has always been 

 anxious to extend all possible protection to the former, at least on paper. But the 

 fact is that Japan has seen the utter futility of trying to regulate either business 

 without an international agreement. No matter what restrictions she may impose 

 they can not be enforced against the foreigners, and to keep the natives out and let the 

 foreigner take the profit is entirely at variance with Japanese principles. Japan's 

 only hope is for international cooperation, and for this she has now been anxiously 

 waiting for nearly ten years. 



Japanese sealers have received a direct encouragement from their Government in 

 a law passed this year (1897) by the Japanese Parliament, by which, under certain 

 conditions, a money subsidy is to be paid them. The law, for a period of five years, 

 from April 1, 1898, to March 31, 1903, provides for a subsidy for sailing vessels of a 

 tonnage of from 60 to 200 registered tons and for steamers of a tonnage of from 100 

 to 350 tons engaged in various specifically enumerated fisheries, among which are sea- 

 otter hunting and sealing. The total amount appropriated is 150,000 yen per year, 10 

 yen to each of the crew, to be paid according to the following schedule : To 35 persons 

 in a steamer of more than 100 tons, to 44 persons in a steamer of more than 200 tons, to 

 47 persons in a steamer of more than 250 tons, to 52 persons in a steamer of more than 

 300 tons, to 53 persons in a steamer of more than 350 tons, to 26 persons in a sailing 

 vessel of more than 60 tons, to 28 persons in a sailing vessel of more than 80 tons, 

 to 29 persons in a sailing vessel of more than ]00 tons, to 31 persons in a sailing 

 vessel of more than 140 tons, to 32 persons in a sailing vessel of more than 160 

 tons, to 34 persons-in a sailing vessel of more than 180 tons, to 37 persons in a sailing 

 vessel of more than 200 tons. 



Four-fifths of the crew of the vessel must be Japanese subjects in order to earn 

 the subsidy, and the fishing must take place in the following waters only : China Sea, 

 Formosa Channel, Eastern Sea, Yellow Sea, Korea Channel, Japan Sea, Okhotsk Sea, 

 Pacific Ocean. (From a translation kindly furnished me by Mr. Kitahara, of the 

 fisheries bureau, imperial department of agriculture and commerce, Tokyo.) 



JAPAN'S EFFORT TO JOIN AN INTERNATIONAL ARRANGEMENT. 



When the United States, in 1887, was trying to protect its own fur-seal interests 

 against the increasing Canadian pelagic sealing by inviting the cooperation of other 

 interested nations, our minister at Tokyo could at once report home that "the Japanese 

 Government is anxious to enter into an arrangement or convention with the United 



