No. 11.
Mr. Bayard to Mr. Phelps.
Washington, March 2, 1888.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 690, of the 18th ultimo, in relation to the Alaskan seal fisheries, and have pleasure in observing the promptitude with which the business has been conducted.
It is hoped that Lord Salisbury will give it favorable consideration, as there can be no doubt of the importance of preserving the seal fisheries in Behring Sea, and it is also desirable that this should be done by an arrangement between the Governments interested, without the United States being called upon to consider what special measures of its own the exceptional character of the property in question might require it to take in case of the refusal of foreign powers to give their cooperation.
Whether legislation would be necessary to enable the United States and Great Britain to carry out measures for the protection of the seals would depend much upon the character of the regulations; but it is probable that legislation would be required.
The manner of protecting the seals would depend upon the kind of arrangement which Great Britain would be willing to make with the United States for the policing of the seas and for the trial of British subjects violating the regulations which the two Governments may agree upon for such protection. As it appears to this Government, the commerce carried on in and about Behring Sea is so limited in variety and extent that the present efforts of this Government to protect the seals need not be complicated by considerations which are of great importance In highways of commerce and render the interference by the officers of one Government with the merchant vessels of another on the high seas inadmissible. But even in regard to those parts of the globe where commerce is extensively carried on, the United States and Great Britain have for a common purpose, abated in a measure their [Page 1838] objection to such interference and agreed that it might be made by the naval vessels of either country.
Reference is made to the treaty concluded at Washington on the 7th of April, 1862, between the United States and Great Britain for the suppression of the slave trade, under which the joint policing of the seas by the naval vessels of the contracting parties was provided for. In this convention no limitation was imposed as to the part of the high seas of the world in which visitation and search of the merchant vessels of one of the contracting parties might be made by a naval vessel of the other party. In the present case, however, the range within which visitation and search would be required is so limited, and the commerce there carried on so insignificant, that it is scarcely thought necessary to refer to the slave-trade convention for a precedent, nor is it deemed necessary that the performance of police duty should be by the naval vessels of the contracting parties.
In regard to the trial of offenders for violation of the proposed regulations, provision might be made for such trial by handing over the alleged offender to the courts of his own country.
A precedent for such procedure is found in the treaty signed at the Hague on May 6, 1882, for regulating the police of the North Sea fisheries, a copy of which is inclosed.
I am, etc.,