favourable, before he should set out on his tour to the Pacific States. He left Washington on the night of the 13th April without having heard a word from your Government. It was then a full month after he had instructed me to open negotiations on the question, and the only probable inference was that Lord Salisbury would not agree to his proposal.

The silence of Lord Salisbury implied, as seemed not improbable, that he would not restrain the Canadian sealers from entering Behring Sea, and as all intelligence from British Columbia showed that the sealers were getting ready to sail in large numbers, the President found that he could not with justice prevent the lessees from taking seals on the Pribyloff Islands. The President therefore instructed the Secretary of the Treasury, who has official charge of the subject, to issue to the lessees the privilege of killing on the Pribyloff Islands the coming season the maximum number of 60,000 seals, subject, however, to the absolute discretion and power of an Agent appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to limit the killing to as small a number as the condition of the herd might, in his opinion, demand.

On the 22nd April, eight days after the President had left Washington, you notified me when I was absent from the capital that Lord Salisbury was ready to agree that all sealing should be suspended pending the result of arbitration.

On the 23rd April I telegraphed Lord Salisbury's proposition to the President.

He replied on the 25th April, expressing great satisfaction at Lord Salisbury's message, but instructing me to inform you that "some seals must be killed by the natives for food;" that "the lessees are bound under their lease from the Government to feed and care for the natives, making it necessary to send a ship to the Pribyloff Islands at their expense;" and that for this service-a very expensive one-the "lessees should find their compensation in taking a moderate number of seals under the lease." The President expressed his belief that this allowance would be readily agreed to by Lord Salisbury, because the necessity is absolute.

You will remember that when I communicated this proposition from the President to you on the evening of Monday, the 27th April, you did not agree to the President's suggestion. On the contrary, you expressed yourself as confident that Lord Salisbury would not accept it; that, in your judgment, the killing of seals must be cut off absolutely on the land and in the water; and that it could not be stopped on either unless stopped on both.

The narrative of facts which I have now given, absolutely necessary for clearly understanding the position of this Government, brings me to a further statement which I am directed by the

President to submit. The President refuses to believe that Lord Salisbury could possibly maintain the position you have taken when his Lordship is placed in full possession of the facts, which I shall now submit to you somewhat in detail.

When the privilege of killing seals on the Islands of St. George and St. Paul in Behring Sea was leased to the North American Company for a certain sum per skin to be paid to the Government, other duties of an onerous, costly, and responsible character were imposed upon the Company.

Under their lease the Company is obliged "to furnish to the inhabitants of the Islands of St. George and St. Paul annually such quantity or number of dried salmon, and such quantity of salt and such number of salt barrels for preserving their necessary supply of meat, as the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time determine."

The Company is further obliged to "furnish to the inhabitants of these islands 80 tons of coal annually, and a sufficient number of comfortable dwellings in which said natives may reside, and shall keep such dwellings in proper repair."

The Company is further obliged "to provide and keep in repair such suitable school-houses as may be necessary, and shall establish and maintain during eight months of each year proper schools for the education of the children on said islands, the same to be taught by competent teachers, who shall be paid by the Company a fair compensation, all to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury."

The Company is further obliged to "maintain a suitable house. for religious worship, and will also provide a competent physician, or physicians, and necessary and proper medicines and medical supplies."

The Company is still further obliged "to provide the necessaries of life for the widows and orphans, aged and infirm inhabitants of said islands, who are unable to provide for themselves."

And it is finally provided that "all the foregoing agreements. shall be done and performed by the Company free of all costs and charges to the said native inhabitants of said islands, or to the United States."

And it is made still further the duty of the Company "to employ the native inhabitants of said islands to perform such labour upon the islands as they are fitted to perform, and to pay therefor a fair and just compensation, such as may be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury." And also the Company "agrees to contribute as far as in its power all reasonable efforts to secure the comfort, health, education, and promote the morals and civilization, of said native inhabitants."

[1890-91. LXXXIII.]

2 A

In short, then, the means of living, the facilities for education, the care of health, the religious teaching, the training of the young, and the comfort of the old, in a community of over 300 persons, are all imposed upon the Company as its solemn duty by specific Articles of the lease. I inclose you a copy of the Census of 1890, giving every name of the 303 persons, old and young, male and female, who constitute the whole community of the Pribyloff Islands.

The duties thus imposed upon the Company must be discharged annually with punctuality and exactness. The comfort, possibly the safety, of all these human beings, peculiarly helpless when left to themselves, is dependent upon the Company under the lease, and the lessees are paid therefor by the Government in the seal-skins which the Company receive for the service. If the Company shall, as you say Lord Salisbury requests, be deprived of all privilege of taking seals, they certainly could not be compelled to minister to the wants of these 300 inhabitants for an entire year. If these islanders are to be left to charity, the North American Company is under no greater obligation to extend it to them than are other citizens of the United States. It evidently requires a considerable sum of money to furnish all the supplies named in the leasesupplies which must be carried 4,000 miles on a specially chartered steamer. If the lessees are not to be allowed payment in any form for the amount necessary to support these 300 people on the islands, they will naturally decline to expend it.

No appropriation of money has been made by Congress for the purpose, and the President cannot leave these worthy and innocent people to the hazard of starvation, even to secure any form of Agreement with Lord Salisbury touching seal life. Seal life may be valuable, but the first duty of the Government of the United States in this matter is to protect human life.

In this exigency, the President instructs me to propose to Lord Salisbury that he concede to the North American Company the right to take a sufficient number of seals, and no more than sufficient, to recompense them for their outlay in taking care of the natives, and that, in the phrase of the President, all "commercial killing of seals be prohibited pending the result of arbitration."

The Secretary of the Treasury has a right to fix the number necessary to the end desired. After full consideration, he has limited the number to 7,500 to be killed by the Company to repay them for the outlay demanded for the support of the 300 people. on the Pribyloff Islands.

He further directs that no females be killed, and that thus the productive capacity of the herd shall not in the slightest degree be impaired.

This point being fixed and agreed to, the proposed Arrangement between the two countries would be as follows:

The Government of the United States limits the number of seals to be killed on the islands for purposes just described to 7,500.

The Governu.ent of the United States guarantees that no seals shall be killed in the open waters of Behring Sea by any person on any vessel sailing under the American flag, or by any American citizen sailing under any other flag.

The Government of Great Britain guarantees that no seals shall be killed in the open waters of Behring Sea by any person on any vessel sailing under the British flag, and that no British subject shall engage in killing seals for the time agreed upon on any vessel sailing under any other flag.

These prohibitions shall continue until the 1st day of May, 1892, within which time the Arbitrators shall render final award or awards to both Governments.

These several propositions are submitted for the consideration of Lord Salisbury. The President believes that they are calculated to produce a result at once fair and honourable to both Governments, aud thus lead to the permanent adjustment of a controversy which has already been left too long at issue.

I have, &c.,

Sir J. Pauncefote.

J. G. BLAINE.

Sir J. Pauncefote to the Marquess of Salisbury.-(Received May 14.)

Mr LORD, Washington, May 5, 1891. WITH reference to my immediately preceding despatch, I have the honour to inclose herewith copy of a note which I have this day addressed to Mr. Blaine in answer to his communication of yesterday relative to a modus vivendi in Behring Sea.

The Marquess of Salisbury.

SIR,

I have, &c.,

JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE.

(Inclosure.)-Sir J. Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine.

Washington, May 5, 1891.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday, in which you have formulated, for the consideration of the Marquess of Salisbury, detailed proposals for the modus vivendi during the approaching fishery season in Behring Sea on the principle of a cessation of seal killing both at sea and on land, an arrangement to which, as I informed you in my note of the 20th ultimo, his Lordship was disposed to give his favourable considera

tion. I have forwarded to Lord Salisbury by this day's mail a copy of your note, and I have telegraphed to his Lordship the precise terms of the proposal with which it concludes.

I much regret to find that a misconception has arisen as regards your complaint of delay on my part in acquainting Lord Salisbury with your second or alternative proposal for a cessation of seal killing at sea and on land, which you originally made to me verbally. On that occasion, you may remember that I expressed some reluctance at sending any further proposals to his Lordship while his despatch of the 21st February last (submitting amendments on the questions for arbitration) remained unanswered, and that I suggested that it would be more satisfactory if this new proposal were made concurrently with your reply to that despatch, which I hoped to receive with the least possible delay.

I understood you to assent to that suggestion, and to say that you would "proceed in that order."

If you had informed me that the President for any reason desired that this alternative proposal should be telegraphed to Lord Salisbury, I need hardly say that I should have complied at once with his wishes.

But I cannot call to mind that the President's name was ever mentioned at our interview, which you correctly describe as a conversational exchange of views."

Fortunately, however, no appreciable loss of time occurred. I acquainted Lord Salisbury with your alternative proposal by the mail of the 7th April, a few days only after it was made, and I received a prompt answer by telegraph, which enabled me to inform you by my note of the 20th April that his Lordship was disposed to consider the proposal favourably.

At an interview at your residence on the 23rd April you expressed your satisfaction at Lord Salisbury's reply, and you stated that before taking any further steps you desired to communicate by telegraph with the President.

At a further interview at your residence on the 27th, you informed me that the President desired that the modus vivendi should contain a reservation of the right to kill a certain number of seals for the support of the natives of the Pribyloff Islands.

At first sight this reservation caused me some disappointment. It certainly appeared to me open to exception as detracting from the principle of equality, which was a feature of the original proposal. But I was more concerned at your stating that it never was the intention of the President or of yourself that the modus vivendi should be put in force until the terms of arbitration had been settled.

This I feared would prevent the timely application of the modus