Mr. Blaine to Sir Julian Pauncefote.
Washington, May 4, 1891.
Sir: During the month of March last, a few days after the adjournment of Congress, acting under the instructions of the President, I proposed to you that a modus vivendi be agreed upon touching the seal fisheries, pending the result of arbitration of the question at issue between the two Governments. The President’s first proposal, which I submitted to you, was that no Canadian sealer should be allowed to come within a certain number of miles of the Pribyloff Islands.
It was, however, the conclusion of the President, after reading Lord Salisbury’s dispatch of February 21, that this modus vivendi might possibly [Page 553] provoke conflict in the Behring Sea, and, to avoid that result, he instructed me to propose that sealing, both on land and sea, should be suspended by both nations during the progress of arbitration, or during the season of 1891. On both occasions it was a conversational exchange of views, the first in my office at the State Department, the second at my residence.
The President was so desirous of a prompt response from Lord Salisbury to his second proposition that I ventured to suggest that you request an answer by cable, if practicable. Especially was the President anxious to receive an answer (which he trusted would be favorable) before he should set out on his tour to the Pacific States. He left Washington on the night of April 13 without having heard a word from your Government. It was then a full month after he had instructed me to open negotiations on the question, and the only probable inference was that Lord Salisbury would not agree to his proposal.
The silence of Lord Salisbury implied, as seemed not improbable, that he would not restrain the Canadian sealers from entering Behring Sea, and, as all intelligence from British Columbia showed that the sealers were getting ready to sail in large numbers, the President found that he could not with justice prevent the lessees from taking seals on the Pribyloff Islands. The President, therefore, instructed the Secretary of the Treasury, who has official charge of the subject, to issue to the lessees the privilege of killing on the Pribyloff Islands the coming season the maximum number of sixty thousand (60,000) seals, subject, however, to the absolute discretion and power of an agent, appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, to limit the killing to as small a number as the condition of the herd might, in his opinion, demand.
On the 22d of April, eight days after the President had left Washington, you notified me, when I was absent from the capital, that Lord Salisbury was ready to agree that all sealing should be suspended pending the result of arbitration. On the 23d of April I telegraphed Lord Salisbury’s proposition to the President. He replied, April 25, expressing great satisfaction with Lord Salisbury’s message, but instructing me to inform you that “some seals must be killed by the natives for food;” that “the lessees are bound, under their lease from the Government, to feed and care for the natives, making it necessary to send a ship to the Pribyloff Islands each season at their expense;” and that, for this service—a very expensive one—the “lessees should find their compensation in taking a moderate number of seals under the lease.” The President expressed his belief that this allowance would be readily agreed to by Lord Salisbury, because the necessity is absolute.
You will remember that when I communicated this proposition from the President to you, on the evening of Monday, April 27, you did not agree with the President’s suggestion. On the contrary, you expressed yourself as confident that Lord Salisbury would not accept it; that, in your judgment, the killing of seals must be cut off absolutely on the land and in the water, and that it could not be stopped on either unless stopped on both.
The narrative of facts which I have now given (absolutely necessary for clearly understanding the position of this Government) brings me to a further statement, which I am directed by the President to submit. The President refuses to believe that Lord Salisbury can possibly maintain the position you have taken when his lordship is placed in full possession of the facts which I shall now submit to you somewhat in detail.
When the privilege of killing seals on the islands of St. George and [Page 554] St. Paul, in Bearing Sea, was leased to the North American Company for a certain sum per skin to be paid to the Government, other duties of an onerous, costly, and responsible character were imposed upon the company.
Under their lease the company is obliged “to furnish to the inhabitants of the islands of St. George and St. Paul, annually, such quantity or number of dried salmon, and such quantity of salt, and such number of salt barrels for preserving their necessary supply of meat as the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time determine.”
The company is further obliged “to furnish to the inhabitants of these islands 80 tons of coal annually, and a sufficient number of comfortable dwellings in which said native inhabitants may reside, and shall keep such dwellings in proper repair.”
The company is further obliged-”to provide and keep in repair such suitable schoolhouses as may be necessary, and shall establish and maintain during eight months of each year proper schools for the education of the children on said islands, the same to be taught by competent teachers, who shall be paid by the company a fair compensation; all to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury.”
The company is farther obliged “to maintain a suitable house for religious worship, and will also provide a competent physician or physicians and necessary and proper medicine and medical supplies.”
The company is still further obliged “to provide the necessaries of life for the widows and orphans, aged and infirm inhabitants or said islands, who are unable to provide for themselves.”
And it is finally provided that “all the foregoing agreements shall be done and performed by the company free of all costs and charges to the said native inhabitants of said islands or to the United States.”
And it is made still further the duty of the company “to employ the native inhabitants of said islands to perform such labor on the islands as they are fitted to perform, and to pay therefor a fair and just compensation, such as may be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury.” And, also, the company “agrees to contribute, as far as in its power, all reasonable efforts to secure the comfort, health, education, and promote the morals and civilization of said native inhabitants.”
In short, then, the means of living, the facilities for education, the care of health, the religious teaching, the training of the young, and the comfort of the old, in a community of over 300 persons, are all imposed upon the company as its solemn duty by specific articles of the lease. I inclose you a copy of the census of 1890, giving every name of the 303 persons, old and young, male and female, who constitute the whole community of the Pribyloff Islands.
The duties thus imposed upon the company must be discharged annually with punctuality and exactness. The comfort, possibly the safety, of all these human beings, peculiarly helpless when left to themselves, is dependent upon the company under the lease, and the lessees are paid therefor by the Government in the seal skins which the company receives for the service. If the company shall, as you say Lord Salisbury requests, be deprived of all privilege of taking seals, they certainly could not be compelled to minister to the wants of these 300 inhabitants for an entire year. If these islanders are to be left to charity, the North American Company is under no greater obligation to extend it to them than are other citizens of the United States. It evidently requires a considerable sum of money to furnish all the supplies named in the lease—supplies which must be carried 4,000 miles on a specially chartered steamer. If the lessees are not to be allowed payment [Page 555] in any form for the amount necessary to support these 300 people on the islands, they will naturally decline to expend it. No appropriation of money has been made by Congress for the purpose, and the President can not leave these worthy and innocent people to the hazard of starvation, even to secure any form of agreement with Lord Salisbury touching seal life. Seal life may be valuable, but the first duty of the Government of the United States in this matter is to protect human life.
In this exigency the President instructs me to propose to Lord Salisbury that he concede to the North American Company the right to take a sufficient number of seals, and no more than sufficient, to recompense them for their outlay in taking care of the natives; and that, in the phrase of the President, all “commercial killing of seals be prohibited pending the result of arbitration.” The Secretary of the Treasury has the right to fix the number necessary to the end desired. After full consideration, he has limited the number to seven thousand five hundred (7,500) to be killed by the company to repay them for the outlay demanded for the support of the 300 people on the Pribyloff Islands. He further directs that no females be killed, and that thus the productive capacity of the herd shall not in the slightest degree be impaired.
This point being fixed and agreed to, the proposed arrangement between the two countries would be as follows:
The Government of the United States limits the number of seals to be killed on the islands, for purposes just described, to seven thousand five hundred (7,500).
The Government of the United States guaranties that no seals shall be killed in the open waters of the Behring Sea by any person or any vessel sailing under the American-flag, or by any American citizen sailing under any other flag.
The Government of Great Britain guaranties that no seals shall be killed in the open waters of the Behring Sea by any person on any vessel sailing under the British flag, and that no British subject shall engage in killing seals for the time agreed upon on any vessel sailing under any other flag.
These prohibitions shall continue until the 1st day of May, 1892, within which time the arbitrators shall render final award or awards to both Governments.
These several propositions are submitted for the consideration of Lord Salisbury. The President believes that they are calculated to produce a result at once fair and honorable to both Governments, and thus lead to the permanent adjustment of a controversy which has already been left too long at issue.
I have, etc.,