Mr. Bayard to Mr.
Gresham.
Embassy op
the United States,
London, April 11, 1894.
(Received April 23.)
Sir: The last dispatch I had the honor to address
to you on the subject of the legislation to enforce the Bering Sea award and
regulations was dated the 6th instant, and beg I leave now to inclose
herewith a copy of a telegram I had the honor to send you on the same
subject on the 10th instant.
Your telegram, transmitting the text of the act of Congress to enforce the
award and regulations of the Paris Tribunal, commenced to reach me on Monday
evening last and was completed that night, and I herewith inclose a full
copy thereof.
I beg to draw your attention to the word “exclusive,” in the last line of
section 2, which purports to follow the phraseology of article 1 of the
regulations, which, according to your telegram, are set out literally in the
preamble to the act of Congress to enforce those regulations.
I presume “exclusive” is an error arising in the telegraphic transmission,
and that in the text of the statute it is “inclusive,” and in accordance
with the regulations recited in the preamble.
While I have confidence that it is the full intention of this Government to
carry out in equality of force and good faith the letter and spirit of their
treaty stipulations, yet I have thought it best to supplement my personal
conversation with Lord Kimberley by a note, which I have written him to-day,
and a copy of which I herewith inclose.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Bayard to Lord
Kimberley.
Dear Lord Kimberley: The full text of the
United States statute carrying into effect the award and regulations of
the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris has been telegraphed to me, and I
find (that as I had supposed) no exemption from the penalties prescribed
therein is made in favor of any vessel or citizen of the United States
who may have departed on a sealing voyage in the North Pacific or Bering
Sea at any time since the award of the tribunal was announced at Paris
on August 15 last, without further notification of the measures to put
the award and regulations into operation.
As I have heretofore had the honor to bring to the attention of your
lordship, no individuals are entitled to so little consideration by
either of the two Governments, and none assuredly should be more swiftly
visited with punishment than those who, from the nature of their
occupation, had the fullest knowledge, and means of knowledge, of the
public and careful stipulations of the two Governments in their
convention of February, 1892.
The expressions in debate by the attorney-general and of leading members
on both sides of the House give me great confidence that the Government
of Her Majesty will equally and explicitly enforce the
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award, as that of the United States has
already done, so that no pretext can be left for reflection upon the
practice of arbitration or its unimpeachable execution in the present
important case.
Believe me, etc.,
