views of Her Majesty's Government on the main questions involved are stated with great precision in Lord Salisbury's dispatch of the 22d of May, which I had the honor to read to you yesterday, and of which, in accordance with your desire, I left a copy in your hands. I would only observe that as regards the sufficiency or insufficiency of the radius of ten miles around the rookeries "within which Her Majesty's Government proposed that sealers should be excluded" no opportunity was afforded ine of discussing the question before the proposals of Her Majesty's Government were summarily rejected. I may mention, also, that I fear there has been some misapprehension as regards a request which you appear to have understood me to make respecting the date of the sailing of United States revenue-cutters for Behring Sea. I have no recollection of having made any suggestion with reference to those revenue-cutters, except that their commanders should receive explicit instructions not to apply the municipal law of the United States to British vessels in Behring Sea outside of territo rial waters. I have, etc., JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. No. 22. Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine. [Extract from telegram from the Marquis of Salisbury.] (Received June 9, 1890.) Lord Salisbury regrets that the President of the United States should think him wanting in conciliation, but his lordship can not refrain from thinking that the President does not appreciate the difficulty arising from the law of England. It is entirely beyond the power of Her Majesty's Government to exclude British or Canadian ships from any portion of the high seas, even for an hour, without legislative sanction. Her Majesty's Government have always been willing, without pledging themselves to details on the questions of area and date, to carry on negotiations, hoping thereby to come to some arrangement for such a close season as is necessary in order to preserve the seal species from extinction, but the provisions of such an arrangement would always require legislative sanction so that the measures thereby determined may be enforced. Lord Salisbury does not recognize the expressions attributed to him. He does not think that he can have used them, at all events, in the context mentioned. No. 23. Mr. Blaine to Sir Julian Pauncefote. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have shown to the President the extract from the telegram of Lord Salisbury of June 9, in which his lordship states that "it is beyond the power of Her Majesty's Government to exclude British or Canadian ships from any portion of the high seas, even for an hour, without legislative sanction." Not stopping to comment upon the fact that his lordship assumes the waters surrounding the Pribylov Islands to be the "high seas," the President instructs me to say that it would satisfy this Government if Lord Salisbury would by public proclamation simply request that vessels sailing under the British flag should abstain from entering the Behring Sea for the present season. If this request shall be complied with, there will be full time for impartial negotiations, and, as the President hopes, for a friendly conclusion of the differences between the two Governments. I have, etc., No. 24. JAMES G. BLAINE. Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine. WASHINGTON, June 11, 1890. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge your note of this day with reference to the passage in a telegram from the Marquis of Salisbury, which I communicated to you at our interview of the 9th instant, to the effect that "it is beyond the power of Her Majesty's Government to exclude British or Canadian ships from any portion of the high seas, even for an hour without legislative action.” You inform me that without commenting on the fact that his lordship assumes the waters surrounding the Pribylov Islands to be the high seas, the President instructs you to say that it would satisfy your Government if Lord Salisbury would by public proclamation simply request that vessels sailing under the British flag should abstain from entering the Behring Sea for the present season. You add, if this request shall be complied with, there will be full time for impartial nego tiations, and, as the President hopes, for a friendly conclusion of the differences between the two Governments. I have telegraphed the above communication to Lord Salisbury, and I await his lordship's instructions thereon. In the meanwhile I take this opportunity of informing you that I reported to his lordship, by telegraph, that at the same interview I again pressed you for an assurance that British sealing vessels would not be interfered with in the Behring Sea by United States revenue cruisers while the negotiations continued, but you replied that you could not give such assurance. I trust this is not a final decision, and that in the course of the next few days, while there is yet time to communicate with the commanders, instructions will be sent to them to abstain from such interference. It is in that hope that I have delayed delivering the formal protest of Her Majesty's Government announced in my note of the 23d of May. I have, etc., JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. No. 25. Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine. WASHINGTON, June 14, 1890. SIR: With reference to the note which I had the honor to address to you on the 11th instant, I desire to express my deep regret at having failed up to the present time to obtain from you the assurance, which I had hoped to receive, that during the continuance of our negotiations for the settlement of the fur-seal fishery question British sealing vessels would not be interfered with by United States revenue cruisers in the Behring Sea outside of territorial waters. Having learned from statements in the public press and from other sources that the revenue cruisers Rush and Corwin are now about to be dispatched to the Behring Sea, I can not, consistently with the instructions I have received from my Government, defer any longer the communication of their formal protest announced in my notes of the 23d ultimo and the 11th instant against any such interference with British vessels. I have accordingly the honor to transmit the same herewith. [Inclosure.] JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. (Received June 14, 12.35, 1890.) The undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States of America, has the honor, by instruction of his Government, to make to the Hon. James G. Blaine, Secretary of State of the United States, the following communication: Her Britannic Majesty's Government have learned with great concern from notices which have appeared in the press, and the general accuracy of which has been confirmed by Mr. Blaine's statements to the undersigned, that the Government of the United States have issued instructions to their revenue cruisers about to be despatched to Behring Sea, under which the vessels of British subjects will again be exposed, in the prosecution of their legitimate industry on the high seas, to unlawful interference at the hands of American officers. Her Britannic Majesty's Government are anxious to co-operate to the fullest extent of their power with the Government of the United States in such measures as may be found to be expedient for the protection of the seal fisheries. They are at the present moment engaged in examining, in concert with the Government of the United States, the best method of arriving at an agreement upon this point. But they can not admit the right of the United States of their own sole motion to restrict for this purpose the freedom of navigation of Behring Sea, which the United States have themselves in former years convincingly and successfully vindicated, nor to enforce their municipal legislation against British vessels on the high seas beyond the limits of their territorial jurisdiction. Her Britannic Majesty's Government are therefore unable to pass over without notice the public announcement of an intention on the part of the Government of the United States to renew the acts of interference with British vessels navigating outside the territorial waters of the United States, of which they have previously have to complain." The undersigned is in consequence instructed formally to protest against such interference, and to declare that Her Britannic Majesty's Government must hold the Government of the United States responsible for the consequences that may ensue from acts which are contrary to the established principles of international law. The undersigned, etc., JUNE 14, 1890. No. 26. JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine. WASHINGTON, June 27, 1890. SIR: I did not fail to transmit to the Marquis of Salisbury a copy of your note of the 11th instant, in which, with reference to his lordship's statement that British legislation would be necessary to enable Her Majesty's Government to exclude British vessels from any portion of the high seas "even for an hour," you informed me, by desire of the President, that the United States Government would be satisfied "if Lord Salisbury would by public proclamation simply request that vessels sailing under the British flag should abstain from entering the Behring Sea during the present season." I have now the honor to inform you that I have been instructed by Lord Salisbury to state to you in reply that the President's request presents constitutional difficulties which would preclude Her Majesty's Government from acceding to it, except as part of a general scheme for the settlement of the Behring Sea controversy, and on certain condi tions which would justify the assumption by Her Majesty's Government of the grave responsibility involved in the proposal. Those conditions are: I. That the two Governments agree forthwith to refer to arbitration the question of the legality of the action of the United States Government in seizing or otherwise interfering with British vessels engaged in the Behring Sea, outside of territorial waters, during the years 1886, 1887, and 1889. II. That, pending the award, all interference with British sealing vessels shall absolutely cease. III. That the United States Government, if the award should be adverse to them on the question of legal right, will compensate British subjects for the losses which they may sustain by reason of their compliance with the British proclamation. Such are the three conditions on which it is indispensable, in the view of Her Majesty's Government, that the issue of the proposed proclamation should be based. As regards the compensation claimed by Her Majesty's Government for the losses and injuries sustained by British subjects by reason of the action of the United States Government against British sealing vessels in the Behring Sea during the years 1886, 1887, and 1889, I have already informed Lord Salisbury of your assurance that the United States Government would not let that claim stand in the way of an amicable ad justment of the controversy, and I trust that the reply which, by direc tion of Lord Salisbury, I have now the honor to return to the President's inquiry, may facilitate the attainment of that object for which we have so long and so earnestly labored. His SIR: On the 5th instant you read to me a dispatch from Lord Salisbury dated May 22, and by his instruction you left with me a copy. Lordship writes in answer to my dispatch of the 22d January last. At that time, writing to yourself touching the current contention between the Governments of the United States and Great Britain as to the jurisdiction of the former over the waters of the Behring Sea, I made the following statement: The Government of the United States has no occasion and no desire to withdraw or modify the positions which it has at any time maintained against the claims of the Imperial Government of Russia. The United States will not withhold from any nation the privileges which it demanded for itself when Alaska was part of the Russian Empire. Nor is the Government of the United States disposed to exercise any less power or authority than it was willing to concede to the Imperial Government of Russia when its sovereignty extended over the territory in question. The President is persuaded that all friendly nations will concede to the United States the same rights and privileges on the lands and in the waters of Alaska which the same friendly nations always conceded to the Empire of Russia. In answer to this declaration Lord Salisbury contends that Mr. John Quincy Adams, when Secretary of State under President Monroe, protested against the jurisdiction which Russia claimed over the waters of Behring Sea. To maintain this position his lordship cites the words of a dispatch of Mr. Adams, written on July 23, 1823, to Mr. Henry Middleton, at that time our minister at St. Petersburg. The alleged declarations and admissions of Mr. Adams in that dispatch have been the basis of all the arguments which Her Majesty's Government has submitted against the ownership of certain properties in the Behring Sea which the Government of the United States confidently assumes. I quote the portion of Lord Salisbury's argument which includes the quotation from Mr. Adams: After Russia, at the instance of the Russian-American Fur Company, claimed in 1821 the pursuits of commerce, whaling, and fishing from Behring's Straits to the 51st degree of north latitude, and not only prohibited all foreign vessels from landing on the coasts and islands of the above waters, but also prevented them from approaching within 100 miles thereof, Mr. Quincy Adams wrote as follows to the United States minister in Russia: "The United States can admit no part of these claims; their right of navigation and fishing is perfect, and has been in constant exercise from the earliest times throughout the whole extent of the Southern Ocean, subject only to the ordinary exceptions and exclusions of the territorial jurisdictions.” The quotation which Lord Salisbury makes is unfortunately a most defective, erroneous, and misleading one. The conclusion is separated from the premise, a comma is turned into a period, an important qualification as to time is entirely erased without even a suggestion that it |