Mr. Bayard to Mr.
Gresham.
Embassy of
the United States,
London, February 28, 1894.
(Received March 12.)
Sir: I have now the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your instruction by telegram of the 22d instant in relation to
the necessity of efficacious action upon the award and regulations of the
Paris Tribunal of Arbitration.
I applied at the foreign office at once for an interview, but Lord Rosebery
left town in the afternoon of the 23d, and my interview with him was
consequently delayed until the Monday following.
On receipt of your telegram, I at once prepared a note to Lord Rosebery, in
accordance with the desire of the President, as expressed in your telegram,
but considered it expedient to have some conversation with him before
placing the note in his hands (which I did, however, before leaving), a copy
of which is herewith inclosed.
In the course of the conversation, after being informed that the draft for an
act of Parliament, to give effect to the regulations determined by the
arbitrators, had gone forward to Sir Julian Pauncefote at Washington, I
expressed my surprise and regret that Sir Julian, had not been definitely
instructed to sign with you the convention, accepting in full the award of
the Paris tribunal and the regulations prescribed by that body, leaving
penal legislation, framed with intent to enforce the regulations, to be
cooperatively provided in addition by the two powers.
I impressed upon his Lordship the elaborate presentation and prolonged
argument of the case on both sides before the arbitrators, with the
voluminous testimony which had resulted in a very careful and well
considered judgment, which was absolutely binding on the high contracting
parties, and must be honorably; accepted and obeyed as to every provision,
and in the very words employed by them.
This having been done then the proper language to enforce the regulations
could readily be agreed upon.
Lord Rosebery did not seem aware of the proposition for a convention, and
asked why the cooperative legislation would not be sufficient, adding, with
some positiveness, that I might rest assured that it was their purpose to
evade nothing, but to join us in giving full effect to the award.
To this last remark I promptly, and of course, assented, but gave my reasons
as above stated for believing a convention to be manifestly the most direct
and efficient step to attain the end in view.
[Page 149]
His Lordship called in one of the under secretaries, to whom I repeated my
views, and he promised, after consultation with his law experts, to
communicate with me.
I did not desire, however, to press the matter with him so far as to divert
the settlement from Washington, or to give warrant for the creation of any
delay on this side the Atlantic.
My conviction strengthens that a substantial obedience to the prescribed
regulations, especially that feature which forbids at all times the use of
firearms in seal hunting in Bering Sea, must render the business of such
little profit that it will not be worth pursuing. Nor do I see how the
Canadians can, without suicidal discredit, withhold their legislative
cooperation.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Bayard to Lord
Rosebery.
Embassy
of the United States,
London, February 23,
1894.
My Lord: I am to-day instructed by cable to
convey to Her Majesty’s Government an expression of the disappointment
felt by the President in the unexpected and regretted delay in coming to
an agreement for the efficient execution of the regulations for the
conduct of fur-seal fishing in Bering Sea and the Northern Pacific
Ocean, which were deter-, mined and established by the Tribunal of
Arbitration, and promulgated on August 15 last.
A review of our correspondence will disclose that, as early as the middle
of September last, I had the honor to address a note to your lordship,
the object of which was to make these regulations practically, effective
in due anticipation of the sealing season of the present year.
And that it was in consequence of your Lordship’s suggestions and urgent
representations in your note of November 21, in reply to mine of the day
previous, that I became empowered on December 5 to communicate to you
that, “yielding to your Lordship’s desire, as expressed in conversation
and in your note of November 21, the President consents that the
negotiations needful to give effect to the decisions of the Tribunal of
Arbitration shall be conducted at Washington, and that Her Majesty’s
Government shall be represented by Sir Julian Pauncefote.”
And I would also recall to your Lordship that Washington was expressly
proposed by you as the scene of the contemplated negotiation, because of
the greater expedition if conducted there.
On the 11th December I had the honor to receive your reply, stating
that—
Upon the receipt of your excellency’s note I at once instructed Her
Majesty’s representative, by telegraph, to express my
acknowledgments to the United States Government for their courteous
acquiescence in the views of Her Majesty-’s Government on this
subject, and I avail myself of this opportunity to ask your
excellency to accept my best thanks for the trouble which you have
also taken in this matter.
I beg to assure you that no time shall be lost in issuing the
necessary instructions to Sir Julian Pauncefote with regard to these
negotiations.
The contents of this note were duly communicated to my Government; and
since then from time to time I have been informed by the Secretary of
State that he had held several interviews on the subject with Sir Julian
Pauncefote, who was, however, still awaiting the definite instructions
[Page 150]
from his Government,
which, would enable him to join in a convention for effectually
executing the apparently plain and simple duty of giving effect to the
award and decisions of the Tribunal of Arbitration, according to the
terms of the treaty of February 29, 1892, and the concurrent regulations
determined and established for the proper protection and preservation of
the far seal in, or habitually resorting to, the Bering Sea, outside the
jurisdiction and limits of the respective, Governments.
The season of the migration northward of the seal herds is now near at
hand, and reports, apparently well founded and most disquieting, are
current of extensive preparations of sealing vessels to continue the
pelagic and indiscriminate killing and capture of seals, regardless of
the regulations determined by the Tribunal of Arbitration as necessary
for the proper protection and preservation and the species.
Under these circumstances, I am impelled to apply to your Lordship, in
order that no further time may be lost in issuing the requisite
instructions to Sir Julian Pauncefote at Washington to proceed, so that
the great purposes for which resort was had to the principle of
voluntary and amicable arbitration between the two friendly powers may
not be deprived of complete success.
I have the honor to be, etc.,
