[Inclosure in No. 592.—From the London
Times, January 6, 1892.]
Sir G. Baden-Powell and the Behring Sea
question.
Speaking last night at a meeting of his constituents in the Kirkdale
Division of Liverpool, Sir George Baden-Powell gave an account of his
mission to the Behring Sea. He said that Lord Salisbury told him it was
a very difficult, complex, and delicate question; that, above all
things, he wanted to avoid war with the United States, but that at the
same time he wanted to be strong, to show no fear in his policy, but to
show that he was not going to yield one jot or tittle of British rights.
[Loud cheers.] But Lord Salisbury had an additional purpose in sending
him there.
Three or four years ago the Americans seized some British vessels,
imprisoned the captains and crews, and fined them for taking fur seals
out of the high seas. This country, of course, promptly denied that
these vessels were acting illegally, and last summer and autumn, by
their work in the Behring Sea, he thought they had finally brought that
awkward dispute, which might have resulted in war, to arbitration, and
it was his conviction that this country would win in that arbitration.
[Cheers.] He spent three months in the Behring Sea investigating the
full facts. When he arrived there he found three British men-of-war and
seven American Government ships, the latter with instructions to seize
the British sealers if they attempted to seal; but the British
commissioners were able, without any breach of the peace, to make
satisfactory arrangements which enabled the British sailors there to
take home [Page 538] what seals they had
got. [Cheers.] He had some difficulty in getting at the full facts of
seal life on the American islands, but he managed to become good friends
with the Americans, and parted with them affectionately, after finding
out all the facts.
He discovered that no one knew where the seals went to after leaving
those American islands, and he accordingly arranged that the three
men-of-war placed at his service and the transport steamer which carried
himself should explore all these seas. He thought they acquired, as the
result of that exploration, all the facts as to the migration of the
seals—facts never before known. To do this they had to go through a
great deal of rough work; the weather was cold, and there was usually
fog, except when there was a gale; but somehow or other he found his
body thoroughly “suited to these elements, perhaps more so than to the
House of Commons. [Laughter.] Lord Salisbury had been good enough to say
more than once that what was done in the Behring Sea greatly exceeded
his expectations and those of Her Majesty’s Government. [Cheers.]
The investigations they had made were important, but the friendliness
they had established with the Americans and the Russians had yet to bear
fruit; and Lord Salisbury was now very anxious that he should go back at
once to Washington, there to consort with officials of the American
Government and to come to a joint agreement with them in view of the
approaching arbitration. He was to leave on Saturday next, but he hoped
to be back after two or three weeks’ work in Washington, and to be able
to report that the negotiations were as successful as the
investigations. He was happy to say that both sides had not only agreed
to leave the question to arbitration, but had agreed on the details of
the arbitration, and he was convinced that all right-thinking public
men, both in America and in this country, were delighted to find that
this serious bone of contention was to be put out of sight in such a
happy and peaceful manner.
