Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your official note of the 4th instant, commenting upon the reply which I returned to the inquiry contained in your letter of the 2d instant, whether the Marquis of Salisbury would, in order to promote a friendly solution of the fur-seal question, agree to the total exclusion of British sealers from the Behring Sea during the present fishery season. You express the regret of the President that “his considerate and most friendly proposal for the adjustment of all trouble connected with the Behring Sea should be so promptly rejected.”
I have, this day transmitted a copy of your note to Lord Salisbury, and pending further instructions I will abstain from pursuing the discussion on the various points with which it deals, especially as the [Page 433] views of Her Majesty’s Government on the main questions involved are stated with great precision in Lord Salisbury’s dispatch of the 22d of May, which I had the honor to read to you yesterday, and of which, In accordance with your desire, I left a copy in your hands. I would only observe that as regards the sufficiency or insufficiency of the radius of ten miles around the rookeries “within which Her Majesty’s Government proposed that sealers should be excluded” no opportunity was afforded me of discussing the question before the proposals of Her Majesty’s Government were summarily rejected.
I may mention, also, that I fear there has been some misapprehension as regards a request which you appear to have understood me to make respecting the date of the sailing of United States revenue-cutters for Behring Sea. I have no recollection of having made any suggestion with reference to those revenue-cutters, except that their commanders should receive explicit instructions not to apply the municipal law of the United States to British vessels in Behring Sea outside of territorial waters.
I have, etc.,