Mr. Edwardes to Mr. Blaine.
Washington , October 14, 1889.
My Dear Mr. Blaine: When I had the honor to read to you on Saturday, the 12th instant, two dispatches addressed to me by the Marquis of Salisbury on the subject of the seizures of British sealers in Behring Sea, you inquired of me when I reached the passage which runs as follows, “Mr. Bayard did indeed communicate to us, unofficially, an assurance that no further seizures of this character should take place pending the discussion of the questions involved between the two Governments,” if I could tell you in what way this assurance was unofficially communicated to Her Majesty’s Government. I replied that I believed it had been so communicated in a letter addressed by Mr. Bayard to Sir Lionel West, and that that letter would be found in the printed correspondence on the subject which was laid before Congress this year.
I have since learnt that the assurance which Lord Salisbury had in mind when writing the dispatch I read was not that to which I referred in my reply to you, but was an assurance communicated unofficially to his lordship by the United States minister in London, and also by Mr. Bayard to Sir Lionel West in the month of April last year.
I have, etc.,