The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-07-25
SEA CORRESPONDENCE.

The voluminous correspondence between
Mr.. Blaine and the British Government on
the Behiing Sea question contains two
points which appear to be new. One is the
practical admission by Mr.. Blaine that he
is content to rest his case on the non-user
by England Of any rights which under the
strict rules Of international law she might
at one time have claimed in Behring Sea-
This is a new point and strong one. Inc
rule of law that rights may be lost by non,
use forms part of International as well as
munici pal law. There is force in the Sec
retary's request that he be shown how, when
and where Great Britain acquired rights
in Behrinn Sea which she had never claimed
from the first discovery of the sea up to the
wear 1856. If Lord Salisbury cannot show
that those rights have always been claimed
by Great Britain, though it was inconyen-
lent TO use them, he cannot win his case by
the mere demonstration that Behring Sea is
not and never was closed sea in the
meaning of international law.
The other point is the Intervention of
Canada IN the case 1t is evident that, at
one time the British Government was pre-
pared to conclude a temporary arrangement
forbidding elagic" sealing, and also the
catching of seals within ten miles of the
fur-Seal islands; and as this would have
accomplished all the practical objects which
this country had in view, without lnvolV-
ing any statements of doctrine, the United
States would have been satisfied with 1t.
But when the modus yivendi became known
at Ottawa, it reused a storm OF protest,
because ii was SurTenGering the Canadian
case. What the ship-owners of Victoria
want is tile right to sail into Behring Sea
and to catch seal wherever they find them
They protested that the prohibition OF
pelagic sealing took away that right
altogether
Now as TO England, her position on the
matter was different. No mariner sailing
from the British Isles wanted to 90 into
Behring Sea after seals. The British peO-
pie, if they had any opinions or wishes on
the subject, were simply opposed to any
policy which threatened to involve the
extinction of the fur seal Thus, if the
only two parties to the controversy had
been Great Britain and the United states
1t would have been easy TO find ground on
which both might have stood, without
raising the question over the legal quality
of Behring Sea. 1t was the pretenSi0n OF
the British Columbian fishermen which
defeated the pending negotiation. On the
strength of the declaration OF some modern
writer's on international law that there are
no closed seas nowadays the colonists in
sisted on Great Britain taking the ground
that Behring is an open sea, and the Mar
Quis of Salisbury did not dare TO say them
nay.
1t is evident to the careful reader Of this
CORES pOndeuce that more than once the
writers approached perilously near the line
of quarrel. And it is net evident from
anything thus far disclosed whether or not
there is a prospect OF captures of British
sealers by United States revenue cutters
this summer. 1t looks as though the Vic
torian schOOnerS mad gone into the sea to
catch seals as usual, and as if, under the
Presidents proclamation, the instructions
given 10 the revenue cutters must have
been much like those OF last year and the
year before. If so, we are unpleasantly in
danger of receiving news any day which
may strain our relations with a friendly
power; and this, merely in order that a
few colonial fishermen shall realize a few
thousand dollars by taking seal skins
without obvious warrant of law.