Japan, China, Korea, and Manchuria could and doubtless have absorbed large quantities of 
seal fur at good prices for local use, with the rest of the world none the wiser. 
Stejneger (idem, p 331), who was convinced that pelagic sealing was still contin- 
uing off Hokkaido at thie time, in noting the failure of the Asiatic herds to revive in 
proportion to the Pribilof herds, attributed it to probable large-scale poaching activities 
on the wintering grounds under the legal pretext of Article IV of the Treaty. Thies Arti- 
cle, which permitted native aborigines to hunt seals using primitive methode only, was 
abused widely on the American side of the Pacific. But the Hokkaido Ainus were no longer 
actively engaged in sealing, and the Japanese Government apparently intended to abide by 
the treaty restrictions, at least in home waters. All law enforcement wae strict through- 
out Japan in those days, and the seals were not yet plentiful enough to encourage local 
fishermen to risk large-saale operations close by. Undoubtedly some desultory poaching 
continued intermittently off Japan throughout this period, but sealing probably did not 
become rampant until after the militarists came to power in the 1930's and embarked the 
nation on its course of aggressive expansion. By this time the seals had increased suf- 
ficiently to make pelagic operations teaptingly profitable. 
Throughout the treaty period a few seale caught accidentally during fishing oper- 
ations in the waters off Honebu and Hokkaido were reported annually to the Ministry of 
Agriculture and Forestry as follows: 

TABLE B. - SEALS REPORTED TO- BUREAU OF FISHERIES AS DROWNED ACCIDENTALLY 
IN FISH NETS, 1913-39 
SOURCE: Statistics on the Pur Seal Protective Treaty (Bibl 286) 
The low numbers listed from 1913-17 possibly were the result of faulty reporting, 
but the later increase reflects to some extent an increase in the number of seals wintering 
off Japan as the herds built up under treaty protection. The wide variation in the annual 
totale from 1918 to 1939 suggests the possibility that an indeterminate number of poached 
eeals were reported falsely as having been taken accidentally. For instance, the figure 
for 1927, almost double that of any other year, is difficult to credit as entirely fortu- 
itous. 
The presence of these wintering fur seals on the fishing grounds off Hokkaido and 
Honehu must have been a constant temptation to the fishermen who had formerly engaged in 
Pelagic sealing. Agitation for a revision of the treaty began before ites 15-year tern 
expired (Bibl 265, 267, 269, 271), and in 1926, the moment the treaty permitted it, the 
Japanese attempted to open negotiations for this purpose. Japan then was still a menber 
in good standing of the society of nations, and hence for her to abrogate an international 
treaty without suitable grounds was not advisable politically. As Japan had established 
no reaeons for abrogation other than her wish tc resume pelagic sealing commercially, the 
United States and Canada had no difficulty in diplomatically avoiding opening the requested 
negotiations (Bibl 272). 
. Phe political aspects of the situation now began to have a greater significance. 
Japan wae becoming a power to be reckoned with in eastern Asia, and her military faction 
was gaining political strength rapidly at home. When the militariste managed to usurp 
complete control of the government in 1920, they discarded all consideration of conserva- 
tion or wise use of natural resources. Their well-planned campaign of aggression required 
the stockpiling of all possible commodities for tho coming war effort. As fur seale are 
22 
