Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine.
Washington, May 5, 1891.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday, in which you have formulated for the consideration of the Marquis of Salisbury detailed proposals for a modus vivendi during the approaching fishery season in Behring Sea on the principle of a cessation [Page 556] of seal-killing, both at sea and on land, an arrangement to which, as I informed you in my note of the 20th ultimo, his lordship was disposed to give his favorable consideration.
I have forwarded to Lord Salisbury by this day’s mail a copy of your note, and I have telegraphed to his lordship the precise terms of the proposal with which it concludes.
I much regret to find that a misconception has arisen as regards your complaint of delay on my part in acquainting Lord Salisbury with your second alternative proposal for a cessation of seal-killing at sea and on land, which you originally made to me verbally.
On that occasion you may remember that I expressed some reluctance at sending any further proposals to his lordship while his dispatch of February 21 last (submitting amendments on the questions for arbitration) remained unanswered, and that I suggested that it would be more satisfactory if this new proposal were made concurrently with your reply to that dispatch, which I hoped to receive with the least possible delay.
I understood you to assent to that suggestion and to say that “you would proceed in that order.”
If you had informed me that the President for any reason desired that this alternative proposal should be telegraphed to Lord Salisbury, I need hardly say that I should have complied at once with his wishes. But I can not call to mind that the President’s name was ever mentioned at our interview, which you correctly describe as “a conversational exchange of views.” Fortunately, however, no appreciable loss of time occurred. I acquainted Lord Salisbury with your alternative proposal by the mail of the 7th of April (a few days only after it was made), and I received a prompt answer by telegraph, which enabled me to inform you by my note of April 20th that his lordship was disposed to consider the proposal favorably.
At an interview at your residence on the 23d of April you expressed your satisfaction at Lord Salisbury’s reply, and you stated that before taking any further steps you desired to communicate by telegraph with the President.
At a further interview at your residence on the 27th you informed me that the President desired that the modus vivendi should contain a reservation of the right to kill a certain number of seals for the support of the natives of the Pribyloff Islands. At first sight this reservation caused me some disappointment. It certainly appeared to me open to exception as detracting from the principle of equality, which was a feature of the original proposal. But I was more concerned at your stating that it never was the intention of the President or of yourself that the modus vivendi should be put in force until the terms of arbitration had been settled.
This, I feared, would prevent the timely application of the modus vivendi, and I so informed Lord Salisbury by telegram on the same day.
I notice with satisfaction that no such condition is affixed to your present proposal, although the reservation as to the killing of a limited number of seals on the islands is maintained.
I am glad to think that there is yet time to carry out for this fishery season any arrangement which may promptly be agreed to, and I hope that the above explanation may remove the impression you appear to have formed that there has been any delay on my part in expediting the consideration of the modus vivendi which you have proposed.
I have, etc.,