Prince Cantacuzene to Mr. Gresham.
Mr. Secretary of State: On the 8–20th of April last you were pleased, in pursuance of the instructions of the President of the United States, to inform me that, if the Imperial Government assented thereto, the Federal Government was prepared to conclude with Russia, England, and Japan—in lieu of any provisional arrangement—a treaty regulating and establishing the conditions of fur-seal hunting in the Pacific Ocean on bases identical for all, and in conformity with the decisions and regulations of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration. You expressed, at the same time, the opinion that this object would be best attained by extending from one continent to the other the prohibited and protected zone, the southern boundary of which should be the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude.
I immediately communicated to my Government these propositions, which furnish evidence conclusive of the principles of equity and justice that actuate the Federal Government in this matter, and I have already had the honor verbally to inform you of the satisfaction with which these overtures have been received by the Emperor’s Government.
As the season is now too far advanced to permit us to negotiate such a treaty without adopting temporary measures for the protection of our waters, it has been thought necessary to conclude in the mean time a modus vivendi, which may at any time be superseded by a more complete treaty.
In signing to-day this essential provisional arrangement, I hereby reiterate to you, in writing, the declaration that the Imperial Government is, for its part, prepared to negotiate and sign with the United [Page 191] States, England, and Japan a treaty in virtue of which the principles and regulations of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration shall be applicable indifferently to all the waters of the Pacific Ocean situated north of the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,