The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-09-20
THE BERING SEA DISPUTE

WASHINGTON, Sept 19-Assistant Sec
retary Wharton of the state department
and Commissioners Mendenhall and Me
| lain, who were sent to Bering sea to ex
anime aud report concerning the condition
| of the seals and fisheries there, called on
President Harrison on Thursday after
noon and declared that stop must be put
! to the practice of killing seals in the open
sea for several years if it was desired to
perpetuate this species of fur bearing ami
mails. Incidentally the commissioners re
| ferred to tine fact that they had accompan-
| led Special Treasury Agent Williams and
| his assistant on their journeys OF eXplOra-
! tion and found that their views were iden
tical regarding the future course to be
pursued in perpetuatiDg the seals OF the
| Pribyloff islands
Agent Williams is now at his home in
| Ohio engaged in the preparation OF his re-
port on the subject, and the commissioners
| assured the president before leaving the
White House that they would formulate a
similar document as speedily as possible.
Special Agent Williams of the treasury
department has made special report on
this branch of the seal question to the
treasury department and his report was
Yesterday forwarded to the state depart
ment with the request that its contents be
laid before the British minister for trans
mission TO the foreign Office in London.
The contents of Agent Williams report
can not be accurately aScertalned, but 1t is
understood that he makes the admission
that the North American commercial COM
pany has exceeded the limit of its catch of
$500 skins fixed by the modus vivendi.
The matter is regarded here as quite i'm
portant and may lead to the modus vivendi
being declared imperative.
LONDON. Sept. Recommending upon
two articles on the Bering sealing gquestion
published in its columns, the Times calls
the Americans claims preposterous. It
says: "Their action is arbitrary and high
handed Their arguments. as far as they
can be put into intelligible shape, are
worthy of the most rigid school of British
game preserves. The seal is a wild animal,
aud there will never be any danger Of its
determination by hunting on the high
seas The danger comes from excessive
slaughter when the animals are perfectly
helpless IL the Americans choose, by in
discriminate slaughter, TO destry their
own industry, we are helpless but they
by claiming property in the high seas and
their contents. If they will show reason
able spirit of compromise, 1t will be a good
thing to come to an arrangement, not for
close season, which Is Inappropriate to the
conditions of the case, but for a closure
during the breeding season of an area of
perhaps twenty miles around the breeding
grounds"
One lines correspondent describes the
sealing industry throughout and combats
the report of American experts in regard
to the extinction of the seal. He saws all
masters in the sealing feet when inter-
viewed, say that there was no diminution
in number, but the seals were harder to
catch by being moro wary. After the end |
of May hardly any COW seals with young
were taken. proving that their capture |
from boats is not calculated to retard !
natural increase. Correspondents suggest T
a close time for an area OF twenty miles /.
from the end of May to the lst of Decem-
Der. as the mother seals feed within that 4
radius during breeding time. The cores
pondent thinks that the question how
many should be killed on theislsnd should 4
be decided by commission OF practical /
men.