Sir Julian Pauncefote to Mr. Sherman.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note No. 704, of the 18th instant, in answer to mine of the 9th, in which I had the honor to inquire whether the proposal of Her Majesty’s Government to renew for the fur-seal fishery season of 1897, the agreement of 1894 as to the sealing up of arms, is agreeable to your Government.

In reply to that inquiry you state that your Government is willing to give to British vessels the benefit of Articles IV, V, and VI of the regulations controlling American sealing vessels for the season of 1897.

I would beg leave to point out that the above reply hardly answers the inquiry of my Government.

The arrangement of 1894 was a reciprocal one, for the mutual benefit of the sealing vessels of both nations. Its discontinuance at the desire of the Canadian sealers has been deprecated ever since by your Government, at whose instance, therefore, it may be said it is now proposed to renew it.

The precise terms of the arrangement were settled by the then Secretary of the Treasury (the Hon. J. Carlisle) and myself, and they are to be found recorded in my note to the late Mr. Secretary Gresham of May 10, 1894.

If your Government should be disposed to renew that arrangement, as proposed by my Government, for the season of 1897, there will be no difficulty in extending its benefits reciprocally to the sealing vessels of both nations.

But your counter proposal “to extend to British vessels the benefits of Articles IV, V, and VI of the regulations controlling American sealing vessels for the season of 1897” is not one which I am authorized to deal with otherwise than by transmitting it to my Government by the earliest opportunity.

I have, etc.,

Julian Pauncefote.