No. 27.
Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Bayard.

No. 393.]

Sir: I have the honor herewith to inclose for the information of the Department of State, copies, respectively, of my note to Count Ito, and his reply thereto, relating to the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea.

I am requested to call the attention of my Government respectfully and especially to the proposed reciprocal protection of the sea-otter, and to enlarge the protected zone so as to embrace the known habitat of that animal.

I took occasion to say unofficially to Count Ito that I had no hesitation in giving him the hopeful assurance that my Government would co-operate with his excellency’s Government in the proposal to include sea-otter as well as fur seal in any reasonable arrangement which would prevent unregulated and indiscriminate slaughter of this valuable animal [Page 1847] in the waters of Behring Sea as well as on the coasts of Japan and in their conterminous waters. I shall have the honor to await, in deference to Count Ito’s expressed request, your instructions in response to the respectful proposition of the Japanese Government before entering upon any formal negotiations on this subject. On receipt of this dispatch by the Department of State, I have the honor to suggest that if the reply to my cablegram of the 29th ultimo has been mailed to this legation by the Department, that in that end a brief telegram signifying your willingness to include the sea-otter in the said negotiations would advance the negotiations and gratify this Government as well, who manifests a deep interest in securing an early arrangement by our respective governments for the better protection of the fur-seal and sea-otter fisheries in American and Japanese waters.

I have, etc.,

Richard B. Hubbard.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 393.]

Mr. Hubbard to Count Ito Hirobumi.

Sir: I have the honor herewith to forward to your excellency, and to beg your early and favorable consideration of, a copy of an instruction which I have had the honor to receive from the Department of State of my Government.

The general proposition respectfully submitted in this instruction by my Government, as well as the obvious and convincing reasons there set forth in favor of its adoption by the friendly powers named therein, will, I am sure, receive from your excellency’s Government the same earnest consideration as they have received from the United States.

As already indicated unofficially to the foreign office, I shall, in furtherance of the wishes and instructions of my Government, be gratified and obliged if your excellency will formally appoint any future time and place when and where I may have the honor to confer and discuss with your excellency, or any other representative of His Imperial Majesty’s Government, the subject of an arrangement or special convention between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan having reference to the better protection of the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea.

I avail, etc.,

Richard B. Hubbard.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 393.—Translation.]

Count Ito Hirobumi to Mr. Hubbard.

No. 8584].

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellenty’s note of the 6th instant, in which you are pleased to inclose the copy of a communication from the honorable the Secretary of State in reference to the seal fisheries in Behring Sea, and, in pursuance of instructions contained in that dispatch, invite His Imperial Majesty’s Government to enter into an arrangement with the Government of the United States having for its object the protection of fur seals in Behring Sea from indiscriminate destruction and consequent extermination.

The unregulated and indiscriminate slaughter of the sea-otter as well as the fur seal on the coasts of Japan and in their conterminous waters is a subject which has for many years engaged the serious attention of the Imperial Government.

The experience of His Imperial Majesty’s Government justifies the belief that the end sought to be obtained can be best secured by means of a co-operative international action, and they therefore cordially approve of the suggestion of the honorable the Secretary of State.

His Imperial Majesty’s Government would be willing to enter into an arrangement for the purpose indicated, but they would wish, for the reasons assigned by Mr. Bayard in favor of the protection of the fur seal in Behring Sea, to extend the principle [Page 1848] of protection to the sea-otter as well as the far seal, and to enlarge the protected zone so as to embrace the known habitat of that animal.

I beg that you will bring this proposal to the attention of the Government of the United States, and I would suggest that this be done in advance of any negotiations on the subject.

I avail myself, etc.

Count Ito Hirobumi.