Mr. Gresham to Sir Julian Pauncefote.
Washington, January 23, 1895.
Excellency: I have the honor to inform yon for communication to your Government, of the deep feeling of solicitude on the part of the President of the United States with regard to the future of the Alaskan seal herd as disclosed by the official returns of seals killed at sea during the present season in the North Pacific Ocean, filed in the respective custom-houses of the United States and British Columbia, and by reliable estimates of skins shipped to London from the Asiatic coast by way of the Suez Canal.
It would appear that there were landed in the United States and Victoria 121,143 skins, and that the total pelagic catch, as shown by the London trade sales and careful estimates of skins transshipped in Japanese and Russian ports, amounts to about 142,000, a result unprecedented in the history of pelagic sealing. It would further appear that the vessels engaged in Bering Sea, although only one-third of the total number employed in the North Pacific, in four or five weeks killed 31,585 seals, not only over 8,000 more than were killed in Bering Sea in 1891 (the last year the sea was open) but even more than the total number killed during the four months on the American side of the North Pacific this season.
This startling increase in the pelagic slaughter of both the American and Asiatic herds has convinced the President; and it is respectfully submitted can not fail to convince Her Majesty’s Government, that the regulations enacted by the Paris Tribunal have not operated to protect the seal herd from that destruction which they were designed to prevent, and that, unless a speedy change in the regulations be brought about, extermination of the herd must follow. Such a deplorable result should if possible be averted.
The experience of the past year under the regulations has demonstrated that not alone are the United States and Great Britain deeply interested in the preservation of the seal herd; Russia and Japan [Page 229] have interests commercially almost as important. Any new system of regulations of necessity should embrace the whole North Pacific Ocean from the Asiatic side to the American side, and should be binding upon the citizens and subjects alike of all of these countries.
In order to add to our scientific knowledge upon this question as to the habits of the seal, its feeding grounds, and the effect of pelagic sealing upon the herd, and other similar questions, the President deems it advisable to suggest to Her Majesty’s Government, and to the Governments of Russia and Japan, that a commission be appointed, consisting of one or more men from each country, eminent for scientific knowledge and practical acquaintance with the fur trade. This commission should visit the Asiatic side of the North Pacific as well as the American, and also the islands which the seals frequent, and report to their respective Governments as to the effects of pelagic sealing on the herd and the proper measures needed to regulate such sealing so as to protect the herd from destruction and permit it to increase in such numbers as to permanently furnish an annual supply of skins.
I am directed by the President to propose for the consideration of your Government, and the Governments of Russia and Japan, the appointment of such a commission, and I am further directed to suggest that during its deliberations the respective Governments agree upon a modus vivendi, as follows:
That the regulations now in force he extended along the line of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude from the American to the Asiatic shore, and he enforced during the coming season in the whole of the Pacific Ocean and waters north of that line, Furthermore, that sealing in Bering Sea he absolutely prohibited pending the report of such commission.
Inasmuch as the sealing season will shortly commence, and the fleet will leave the western coast for the sealing grounds, I beg to suggest the necessity of speedy action in regard to this proposition.
I have, etc.,