The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-14

There IS a radical difference OF opln-
ion as 20 whether the amount which Mr..
( Gresham. Secretary Of State. agreed to
pay the British government IN fun settle
ment OF the Bering sea claims. is too
much. Mr.. Gresham agreed TO pay Sl25
90 and the British government agreed
10 accept that sum. The President asked
congress TO appropriate that amount for
the. claims and congress refused. on the
ground that it was excessive.
All that Mr.. Gresham has said about
the matter since is that this country will
have to pay a great deal more than the
sum named If the claims are passed upon
by board Of arbitration.
It was agreed by the Paris tribunal that
arbitrated the Boring sea matter that
this country owed something 10 the own
ers of the vessels that had been seized in
Berlng sea for fishing for seals. because
IL was held that these vessels had been
illegally seized. they being at the time of
the seizure outside of the three mile
limit. and in that part OF the sea over
which the United States had no jurisdic-
ton. That tribunal did not undertake to
assess the damages. because it had no
authority 10 do So There were sixteen
vessels seized in all. and their alleged
owners were Canadians the seizures hav-
ing been made between August. 1856. and
March. 1880.
There were two ways for determining
how much this country should pay as
damages for Selling the vessels. One was
by converting court of arbitration and
taking testimony for and against the
claimants. and the ether was by agreeing
upon lump sum and paying it over to
Great Britain, and letting that country dis
tribute it among the claimants.
Mr. Gresham thought it would be much
cheaper for this country TO agree upon
a lump sum. He and the British min
lister at Washington. after number of
conferences. agreed upon S425.OOO
Senator Morgan. who was a member of
the Paris tribunal. and who did not
agree with the finding of that tribunal
asserts that in the amount allowed are
claims for prospective prohts-that is
profits which the sealers would have
made had they not been interfered with
by the revenue cutters of this country
He also says that the greater part of the
amount allowed will go to Americans.
who were the real owners Of most of the
vessels that were seized He does not
think thy should have anything. because
there was nc. excuse whatever for their
breaking the laws of their country
Making what Senator Morgan claims are
the proper deductions. the amount that
should be paid by this government is
only about S96,OOO
1t remains to be seen whether Senator
Morgan or Mr.. Gresham is right. 1t is
worthy of notice that when the matter
was before the senate. Senator Gray de-
clared that the S425,OOO was far within the
amount claimed by Great Britain, and that
the foreign relations committee. after
a careful consideration of the subject,
came to the conclusion that the settle
ment was much more favora-
BILE to the United States than there was
reason to expect it would be. Mr.. Ores
ham, therefore, had pretty good support
in doing what he did.
1t is safe to conclude that he did the
best that could have been done, and that
the result of the rejection of the settle
ment he made will be that this country
will have to pay a good deal more than
he agreed to pay. If that should be the
case Senator Morgan and congress viii
be pretty severely condemned by public
sentiment.
Tho latest evnloit of the south Caro-