Mr. Wharton to Sir Julian Pauncefote.
Washington, October 10, 1891.
Sir: It is a source of regret that an answer has been so long delayed to your note of August 26 last, relating to the communication of the British Behring Sea commissioners as to the alleged killing of seals on the seal islands in excess of the number fixed by the agreement of June 15 last. This delay has been occasioned by the necessity of receiving from the United States agent in charge of the islands a full report on the subject.
The agent reports that he reached the islands on the 10th day of June, 1891; that from the 1st of January to the 1st of May, 1891, no seals were killed on the islands; and that from May 1 to June 10, the date of the agent’s arrival, there were killed for the natives for food 1,651 seals. On the morning of June 11 the agent gave permission to the lessees to commence killing under the contract with the Government of the United States, and he states that from the 11th to the 15th of June 2,920 seals were killed; and that from June 15 to July 2, the date of the arrival of the steamer Corwin bringing the proclamation of the President of the United States containing the notice and text of the modus vivendi, there were killed 4,471 seals. From July 2 to August 10 there were killed for the use of the natives as food 1,796 seals, and, on leaving the islands, the agent gave instructions to limit the number to be killed by the natives for food up to May 1, 1892, to 1,233.
The instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury to the agent, received by the steamer Corwin, were that, if in any way his previous instructions were inconsistent with the President’s proclamation and the agreement embraced in it, he should be governed by the latter. The agent reports that, after careful consideration of the text of the agreement, he decided that the seals killed since June 15, the date when that instrument was signed, should be deducted from the 7,500 named in article 2, thus leaving 3,029 seals to be taken “for the subsistence and care of the natives” from July 2, 1891, to May 1, 1892. He says that, in his desire to carry out with absolute correctness the modus vivendi, he consulted the two United States commissioners (Messrs. Mendenhall and Merriam), the commanders of the United States vessels Mohican, Thetis, and Corwin, the United States special agent, and the special inspector, and that they all concurred in his interpretation of paragraph 2 of the agreement, that seals killed prior to June 15 did not form part of the 7,500 named in the modus vivendi. He further says that in his first meeting with the British commissioners, Sir George Baden-Powell and Dr. G. M. Dawson, July 28, he submitted the same question to them. Their reply was that it was the understanding of the British Government that only 7,500 seals should be taken during the season; but, on examining the text of the agreement, they admitted that the agent’s interpretation of it was correct. This statement as to the views of the British commissioners is confirmed by the report of Prof. Mendenhall.
The agent claims that his action is not only strictly in accord with the language of the agreement, but with the true intent and spirit of the same, as he understood that intent and spirit in the light of all the facts in his possession. He understood that the object of the agreement in allowing 7,500 seals to be killed was “for the subsistence and care of the natives.” The 1,651 seals killed by the natives for food from May 1 to June 10 were almost immediately eaten by them, as is their [Page 593] custom after the scanty supply of meat during the winter and spring months, and no part of these seals was salted or preserved for future use. During the killing season by the lessees under their quota for commercial purposes the natives are kept very busy and have no time to prepare meat for future use, and only so much is used for food as is cut off for present use; so that the seals killed between June 10, when the season commenced, and July 2, when the notice of the modus vivendi was received, were not available for the future subsistence of the natives. As stated, there only remained 3,029 seals to be taken for their subsistence from July 2, 1891, to May 1, 1892. The agent cites the fact that from the close of the commercial killing season of 1890, on July 20, there were killed by the natives for food up to December 31, 1890, 6,218 seals, including 3,468 pup seals, the further killing of the latter being now prohibited. It was plain to the agent that, under the construction which he had placed upon the modus vivendi, the supply of meat for the natives during the coming winter would be entirely inadequate, and before his departure from the islands he called upon the lessees to bring in a sufficient supply of salt beef to carry the natives through the winter and up to May 1, 1892.
The agent had no means of determining the scope and meaning of the phrase of the British commissioners, as used in your note, “this yearns catch,” or “the catch of this season,” as used in their communication to him dated July 30, except by the interpretation to be given to the text of the modus vivendi, as contained in paragraphs 1 and 2. The “same period” found in paragraph 2, he understood to refer to the period within which the British Government undertook to prohibit seal-killing in Behring Sea. The British commissioners informed the agent that, as to the British Government, this period did not begin until a reasonable time after June 15 (the date of signing) sufficient for the naval vessels to reach the sea. The agent interpreted the paragraphs cited as mutually binding, and he could not assume that it would be claimed that their provisions were to take effect on one date in the interest of the British sealers and on another in the interest of the United States.
I have thus taken pains to communicate to you in some detail the action of the agent of the United States on the subject complained of by the British commissioners, and I hope what has been set forth will convince your Government that there has been no disposition on the part of the agent to evade or violate the stipulations of the agreement of June 15 last.
I have, etc.,
Acting Secretary.