Mr. Uhl to Lord Gough.
Washington, July 1, 1895.
My Lord: Your note of May 27 last, informing me that Her Majesty’s Government had designated the naval vessels Nymph and Pheasant to patrol that part of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea embraced within the terms of the award of the Tribunal of Arbitration during the season of 1895 was duly received and communicated to the Secretary of the Treasury, to whose Department the supervision of the corresponding control of those waters under the award and regulations of the Paris tribunal duly pertains.
It is proper, however, in the interest of the efficient fulfillment of the obligations of the respective Governments under the award and findings of the Paris tribunal, that the attention of Her Majesty’s Government should be drawn to the obvious inequality and inadequacy of the measures adopted by Her Majesty’s Government to that end, both with regard to the work necessarily to be accomplished and as compared with the steps taken by the United States Government to the same end.
This discrepancy was especially marked during the season of 1894, when Her Majesty’s Government designated only one patrolling vessel, the Pheasant, although a majority of the schooners engaged in fur-seal fishing within the award area were under the British flag; while of those which entered Bering Sea less than one-half were United States vessels. In that year twelve United States vessels were designated by the President to patrol the award area, viz: Mohican, Bennington, Alert, Banger, Yorktown, Adams, Concord, and Petrel; the revenue cutters Corwin, Rush, and Bear, and the Fish Commission steamer Albatross. The expense attending the presence of these vessels in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea for the season of 1894, exclusive of the pay of officers and men and also excluding rations, was $198,304.49.
For the present season of 1895 the discrepancy, although less marked, is still noteworthy; the conditions under which the patrol of those sealing waters is conducted impose in some respects more onerous duties upon the contracting parties in the protection of seal herds from illicit destruction.
There is grave reason to suspect that during the approaching season in Bering Sea, which opens on the 1st of August, sealing vessels will take advantage of the refusal of the British Government to continue the agreement of 1894, which provided for the sealing up of the arms of such vessels while in Bering Sea, thereby increasing the demands upon the vigilance of the patrolling fleet to detect evasions and infractions of the provisions of the Paris award. In a report from the United States Fish Commission recently transmitted to the Treasury Department it is stated:
We may reasonably expect a fleet of 56 vessels in those waters (Bering Sea). * * * Regarding Bering Sea, the sealers appear gratified over the fact that their firearms can not be sealed up. They considered the sealing of arms a gr at hardship, and their satisfaction over carrying them unsealed must mean a determination to use them whenever they think it safe to do so. Some of them say that when the Japan fleet hear of this they will send more vessels to the sea. There is little doubt but that firearms carried into the sea will be used.
While the sealing fleet in the award area is about the same in numbers as in 1894, the British vessels already cleared for the fur-seal fisheries outnumber the American so cleared in about the proportion of 2 to 1. The United States patrolling fleet for this season consists of seven [Page 656] vessels, viz: The revenue cutters Rush, Bear, Corwin, Wolcott, Grant, and Perry, and the Fish Commission steamer Albatross.
In view of the vast area to be patrolled, this Government is constrained to suggest that the detail of two naval vessels only on the part of Her Majesty’s Government is totally inadequate to the performance of the proper share of the work and responsibility of patrol which necessarily falls to that Government.
I am therefore moved to invite, through you, the earnest attention of Her Majesty’s Government to this matter, and to ask for the more active and efficient cooperation in enforcing the legislation concurrently enacted for carrying out the provisions of the Paris award, which this Government believes it has a right to expect from Her Majesty’s Government in view of the joint obligations which rest upon them in this regard.
While treating of this subject I beg to advert to the importance of obtaining from Her Majesty’s Government a speedy answer touching the changes proposed in the scope of the Paris award, and the practicable suggestions and requests contained in my note to Sir Julian Pauncefote of May 10 last, and in the note of Secretary Olney to you of the 14th ultimo. I refer particularly to the proposition in my note of May 10, that the carrying of firearms in Bering Sea be prohibited, or that illegal use shall be presumed from the possession of weapons the use of which is prohibited, as now provided for in section 10 of the act of Congress of April 6, 1894, and as was formerly provided for in the British Bering Sea act of 1891 and the seal fishery (North Pacific) act of 1893. The note of May 10 further requested permission to appoint experts on behalf of the Government of the United States to examine all seal skins landed at British Columbia ports with regard to sex, mode of slaughter, etc., the results found being compared with the log-book entries. In the note of June 14 a request was made that counsel in representation of the Government of the United States be admitted in condemnation proceedings of vessels seized by United States or British officers. The foregoing suggestions being particularly applicable to Bering Sea, where the season opens on the 1st of August next, it will be highly desirable to have a distinct understanding upon the subject reached before that time, and I therefore renew the previous request for an early answer.
I have, etc.,
Acting Secretary.