No. 270.
Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Frelinghuysen .

No. 228.]

Sir: Referring to your No. 120 and to my Nos. 211 and 215, I have the honor to forward to you herewith a translation of a note recently received [Page 453] from Mr. de Giers upon the subject of hunting, fishing, and trading in the Pacific waters.

I do not see that there is anything in the regulations referred to that affects our whalers, nor our cod-fisheries either, except that when they go ashore to catch small fish for bait in the streams, they expose themselves to interruption from the Russian authorities, who, finding them in territorial waters, may accuse them of having taken their fish therein.

I will endeavor to procure and forward you a translation of the articles of the code referred to by Mr. de Giers, that you may have the whole matter before you. This cannot be done, however, under several days.

I am, sir, &c.,

WICKHAM HOFFMAN.
[Inclosure in No. 228.—Translation.]

Mr. de Giers to Mr. Hoffman.

Sir: Referring to the exchange of communications which has taken place between us on the subject of a notice published by our consul at Yokohama relative to fishing, to hunting, and to trade in the Russian waters of the Pacific, and in reply to the note which you addressed to me, dated March 15–27, I am now in a position to give yon the following information:

A notice of the tenor of that annexed to your note of the 15th March was, in fact, published by our consul at Yokohama, and our consul-general at San Francisco is also authorized to publish it.

This measure refers only to prohibited industries and to the trade in contraband; the restrictions which it establishes extend strictly to the territorial waters of Russia only. It was required by the numerous abuses proved in late years, and which fell with all their weight on the population of our seashore and of our islands, whose only means of support is by fishing and hunting. These abuses inflicted also a marked injury on the interests of the company to which the imperial government had conceded the monopoly of fishing, hunting (“exportation”) in islands called the “Commodore” and the “Seals.”

Beyond this new regulation, of which the essential point is the obligation imposed upon captains of vessels who desire to fish and to hunt in the Russian waters of the Pacific to provide themselves at Vladivostok with the permission or license of the governor-general of Oriental Siberia, the right of fishing, hunting, and of trade by foreigners in our territorial waters is regulated by article 560 and those following, of vol. 12, part 2, of the Code of Laws.

Informing you of the preceding, I have the honor, &c.,

GIERS.