Behring Sea arbitration.
The undersigned has been instructed by the Marquis of Salisbury to inform the United States Government that Her Majesty’s Government are prepared to assent to the first five questions proposed to be submitted to arbitration in the note of Hon. James G. Blaine to the undersigned, dated the 14th of April last.
Her Majesty’s Government can not give their assent to the sixth question formulated in that note. In lieu thereof they propose the appointment of a commission to consist of four experts, of whom two shall be nominated by each Government, and a chairman, who shall be nominated by the arbitrators. The commission shall examine and report on the question which follows:
For the purpose of preserving the fur-seal race in Behring Sea from extermination, what international arrangements, if any, are necessary between Great Britain and the United States and Russia or any other power.
As regards the question of compensation, Her Majesty’s Government propose the following article:
It shall be competent to the arbitrators to award such compensation as in their judgment shall seem equitable to the subjects and citizens of either power who shall be shown to have been damnified in the pursuit of the industry of sealing by the action of the other power.