Mr. Somow to Mr. Olney.
Washington, August 7/July 26, 1895.
Mr. Secretary of State: The contents of the note of Mr. Gresham, late Secretary of State, to the ambassador of Great Britain at Washington, bearing date of the 23d of January last,1 concerning the regulation of fur-seal hunting, has been submitted to the examination of a special commission, which recognizes the necessity of a uniform regime for fur-seal hunting on the high seas for all the northern portion of the Pacific Ocean, from the coasts of America to those of Asia. To this end the Federal Government proposes the appointment of a mixed commission, to be composed of the representatives of the United States of America, of Russia, of Great Britain, and of Japan, whose duty it shall be to examine this question. The Federal Government further piloses to secure the enforcement of the decisions of the tribunal of arbitration which sat at Paris relative to fur-seal hunting as far as 35° north latitude in the Pacific Ocean, and to prohibit hunting in Bering Sea until the commission shall have finished its labors.
While accepting, in principle, the suggestion concerning the appointment of the aforesaid commission, the Imperial Government attaches much greater importance to the “modus vivendi,” whereby the decisions of the tribunal of arbitration at Paris are to be enforced in all waters of the Pacific Ocean situated north of the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude, including the Sea of Okhotsk.
The spirit of equity which actuates the Federal Government does not permit me to doubt that your excellency will be pleased to agree that the present state of things, in which the decisions of the tribunal of arbitration at Paris are enforced only in the eastern part of Bering Sea, the fur seals in the western part of the same sea being thus deprived of this protection, should no longer exist. In reality, all the good measures that have been taken in Bering Sea are paralyzed and productive of no results, from the very fact that the western part is not within the protected zone.
Consequently the Imperial Government, adhering to its view with regard to the necessity of establishing a uniform regime for all waters of the Pacific Ocean situated north of the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude, is of opinion that it would be more practical to make no exception in the case of Bering Sea by prohibiting seal hunting until the termination of the labors of the aforesaid mixed commission, but to enforce the same uniform regime in that sea to which all waters of the Pacific Ocean north of the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude are to be subjected.
In ordering me to convey its thanks to the Federal Government for the kind communication which it has been pleased to make to it, the Imperial Government instructs me to assure your excellency of its earnest desire to cooperate in the success of the aforesaid suggestions, as of any other suggestion tending to establish a uniform regime for the regulation of fur-seal hunting on the high seas in all parts of the Pacific Ocean north of the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,