Mr. Rockhill to Lord Gough.
Washington, August 25, 1890.
My Lord: Referring to your note of the 7th instant, the receipt of which was acknowledged on the 12th, I have the honor to inform you that I am now advised of the views of the Secretary of the Treasury concerning the precautions which the collector of customs at Victoria was adopting and endeavoring to adopt with regard to the transshipment of firearms from British vessels operating during the early part of the sealing season on the Asiatic coast and in the neighborhood of the Komandorsky Islands, as described in Sir Julian Pauncefote’s previous note of June 20 last.
On the 2d of July, in answer to the said note of June 20, Mr. Olney had the honor to submit for the consideration of Her Majesty’s Government the supplementary arrangement in regard to sealers in Bering Sea, which arrangement, as I am informed by your present note of August 7, can not be entered into by Her Majesty’s Government.
As soon as the refusal of Her Majesty’s Government was made known to the Secretary of the Treasury, he notified Captain Hooper of the fact, and advised him that the Treasury Department regrets that it can not direct him to accept the certificates alluded to in Sir Julian’s note of June 20 as final on the question of the concealment of firearms, but that the entire correspondence is transmitted to him, in order that he may take such action as in his discretion may reduce to a minimum the inevitable annoyance connected with the searches of vessels.
I have, etc.,
Acting Secretary.