Los Angeles herald., 1890-07-24

the Rush. He says: 'In the opinion
OF the president, the Canadian vessels
arrested and detained in Bering sea,
were engaged in apursuit in itself contra
bonos mores-a pursuit which OF necessity
involves serious and permanent injury
to the rights of the government and peo-
pie of the United States. To establish
| this ground it is not necessary to argue
the question of the extent of and nature
of the sovereignty of this government
over the waters of Bering sea. 1t is not
necessary to explain, certainly not
to define the powers and privi-
leges ceded by his imperial
majesty the emperor of Russia, in the
treaty by which the Alaskan territory
was transferred to the United States.
The weighty considerations growing out
of the acquisition of that territory, with
all the rights on land and sea INSOFAR
| ably connected Herewith, may be safely
left out of view while the grounds are
set forth upon which this government
rests its justification for the action COM
planned of by her majesty's govern
ment."
The secretary then speaks of the
value of the seal fisheries which were
controlled by Russia without interfer-
ence or question until the cession of
Alaska to the United States in 1867.
This undisturbed possession continued
to the United States until 1886, passing
vessels abstaining from seal capture.
He says that this uniform avoidance of
all attempts to take fur seal in those
waters had been a constant recognition
of the right held and exercised, first by
Russia, and subsequently by this gov
ernment. 1t had also been a recogni-
/ ton of the fact now held beyond denial
or doubt, that the taking of seals in the
open sea rapidly leads to their extinc-
| ton.
This in brief was the condition of the
Alaska fur seal fisheries down to the
year 1886. Precedents, customs and
rights had been established and enjoyed
either by Russia or the United States
for nearly century. The two nations
were the only powers that owned foot
OF land on the continent that bordered
on the islands included within the
Bering sea waters where seal resort.
In this peaceful and secluded field of la
Dor, whose benefit was shared by the
native Aleuts of the Pribylov islands, by
the United States and by England, GER
tain Canadian vessels in 1886 asserted
their right to enter, and by ruthless
course destroy the fisheries, and with
them destroy also the valuable industries
resulting.
The government of the United States
at once proceeded to check this move
ment, which unchecked was sure to do
great and irreparable harm. 1t was
cause of unfeigned surprise to the United
States that her majesty's government
should Immediately interfere to defend
and encourage (surely to encourage by
defending) the course of the Canadians
in disturbing an industry which had
| been carefully developed for more than
ninety years under the flags of Russia
and the United States-developed in such
manner as not to interfere with public
rights or the private industries of any
people, or any other person.
Her majesty's government must ques-
ton whether this pursuit can itself be
regarded as contra bOnOs naOres, unless
and until, for special reasons, it has been
agreed by international arrangement to
| forbid it.
So great has been the injury to the
| fisheries from the irregular and destruct-
i've slaughter OF seals in the open waters
of Bering sea by Canadian vessels that
whereas the United States government
taken annually for series of years, it
was now compelled to reduce the num-
Der to sixty thousand. If four years of
this violation of international law and a
neighbours rights has reduced the annual
slaughter of seals by forty per cent, it
is easy to see how short a period will be
required to work the total destruction of
the fisheries. The ground upon which
her majesty's government justifes, or at
least defends, the course of Canadian
vassels, rests upon the fact that they
are committing their acts of de-
struction on the high seas. 1t is
doubtful whether her majesty's govern
ment would abide by this rule if an at
tempt were made to interfere with the
pearl fisheries of Ceylon, which extend
more than twenty miles from the shore
line, and haye been enjoyed by England
without molestation ever since their ac-
QUESTION. So we'll recognized is the
British ownership of those fisheries, re-
gardless OF the limit of the three mile
line, that her majesty's government
feels authorized to sell the pearl-fisher-
les right from year to year to the highest
bidder Nor is it credible that modes of
fishing on the Grand Banks, altogether
practicable but highly destructive,
would be justified or even permitted by
Great Britain on the plea that the vi
cious acts were committed more than
three miles from shore.
He mentioned dynamite as one of
those destructive methods. Does her
majesty's government seriously main
tain that the law of nations is powerless
to prevent such violation of the common
rights of man? Are the supporters of
justice in all nations to be declared in
competent to prevent wrongs SO odious
and so destructive?
In the Judgment OF this government
the law of the sea is not lawlessness.
One step beyond that which her majesty s
government has taken in this conten-
tion and piracy finds its jurisdiction.
This government has been ready to
concede much in order to adjust all the
differences of view, and in the judgment
of the president the already pro-
posed solution is not only
equitable but generous. The presi-
dent now awaits with deep interest
not unmixed with solicitude, any propo-
sition for the reasonable adjustment
which her maiesty's government may
submit. Forcible resistance, to which
this government is constrained in the
Bering sea, is, in the presidents judgment,
demanded, not only by the necessity of
defending the traditional and long es-