Office of the Historian
  1. Home
  2. Historical Documents
  3. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1895, Part II
  4. Document 311

Mr. Somow to Mr. Adee.

Imperial Legation of Russia,
Washington, August 7/July 26, 1895.

Mr. Secretary: In herewith transmitting to you a note bearing date of August 7/July 26, 1895, concerning the regulation of fur-seal hunting, I have the honor to send you a memorandum containing a statement of the result of the labors of the special commission instructed to report concerning the contents of the note addressed by Mr. Gresham, late Secretary of State, to the ambassador of Great Britain at Washington under date of January 23, 1895, relative to fur seals.

For my own part, I desire to beg you, Mr. Secretary, to keep this legation informed, as you have hitherto done, with regard to the development of this question, thus facilitating a mutual understanding between our two Governments.

Be pleased to accept, Mr. Secretary, the assurance of my very high consideration.

A. Somow.
[Inclosure—Memorandum]
Imperial Legation of Russia,
Washington, August 7/July 26, 1895.

The commission is of the opinion that our principal object—viz, to put a stop to the extermination of fur seals—could be more successfully attained, not by the appointment of a technical mixed commission, but by the convocation of a regular diplomatic conference, whose decisions should be obligatory upon all nations. Otherwise there is reason to fear that illicit fur-seal hunting will continue under other foreign flags, such as that of Sweden, of Italy, etc.

The representative of the ministry of finance has made the following remarks concerning the enforcement of the decisions of the arbitrators at Paris:

1.
It is to be desired that Article I of these regulations, which prohibits fur-seal hunting at all times and by all means within a zone of 60 nautical miles around the Pribilof Islands, should be modified in such a way as to extend the zone in which hunting is prohibited to 200 miles around the Commander Islands and Fuleniew (Robbin Island).
2.
As the Commander Islands are on the boundary line between Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean, fur-seal hunting with firearms should be prohibited in all the waters of the Pacific Ocean as far as 35º north latitude, along the Kourilsky and Commander Islands and the coasts of Japan.
3.
As the fur seals that winter on the Russian islands leave their winter lairs earlier than those on the Pribilof Islands, the time during which sealing on the high seas is prohibited should be made to last, for the former, not until the 1st of May, but until the 1st of March, or, strictly speaking, until the 1st of April.

All these measures relate exclusively to fur-seal hunting on the high seas, since hunting on land in Russian territory, viz, on the Commander Islands and Fuleniew, is under strict inspection, and the number of seals that are allowed to be killed is strictly limited.