The record-union., 1897-12-09

Committee on Foreign Relations to-day
authorized a favorable report on
bill prohibiting pelagic sealing by the
people of the United States.
The bill is a joint production of the
State and Treasury Departments, and
its passage is asked upon the ground
that with such law upon the statute
books the Administration will be in
better position than at present 10 ask
that other Governments prohibit pc
lagic sealing.
The bill received the affirmative vote
of all the Senators present, but its pro-
visions were discussed at considerable
length
The bill was reported to the Senate
later in the day. The first section of
it is as follows:
That no citizen of the United States,
and no person owing duty or obedience
to the laws and treaties of the United
States, nor any person belonging to or
on board vessel of the United States,
shall kill, capture or hunt at any
time, or in any manner whatever, any
fur seal in the waters of the Pacific
Ocean north of the thirtyfifth degree
of north latitude, and including Behring
Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk."
The bill also prohibits any citizen
of the United States from equipping,
using or employing or furnishing sup
plies to any vessels engaged in killing
or hunting fur seals, and declares that
no United States vessel shall be en-
ployed in this work
The penalty for violating the proposed
law is Imprisonment for not more than
six months, or a fine of not less than
$500 or more than $1,000. or both, and
the forfeiture of vessels so engaged.
The fourth section of the bill is as
follows:
IF any vessel of the United States
shall be found within the waters to
which this Act applies having on board
fur seal skins or bodies of seals. or ap-
paratus or implements suitable for
killing or taking seals, it shall be pre-
sumed that such vessels We're killing
seals"
The United States courts in Alaska,
California, Oregon and Washington are
given jurisdiction over cases arising
under the Act.
1t is especially provided that the Act
is not to interfere with the privileges
of coast Indians, nor with the taking
Officers Of the navy and the revenue
cutter service are empowered to search
suspected vessels. The importation of
seal skins by any person, taken con-
trary to this law, is prohibited, and all
such skins so imported are to be seized
and destroyed.
REPRESENTATIVE Hit, Chairman of the
Committee of Foreign Affairs of the
ei,,7 iIa,. In l1eA
House
This measure supplements the diplo-
matte negotiations which have been
going for some time between the Unit
ed States and Great Britain, Russia and
Japan. Throughout the negotiations
with representatives of Great Britain,
an effort was being made to have Brit
ish citizens stop pelagic sealing, whlle
at the same time the United States
permitted it's own citizens to carry on
this practice. When the American
commissioners urged that pelagic seal
ing was contrary to the dictates OF hu-
manity they We're invariably met with
the answer that this inhumanity was
sanctioned by the laws of the United
States The State Department desires
to overcome this objection.
The law, as it stands, permits citi~
zens of the United States to take seals
outside of the three-mile limit sur
rounding the Pribyloff Islands. This
was never intended but has come
about through a Supreme Court deci-
sion respecting the Paris awards. The
law reads that citizens of the United
States shall not take seals in the
waters of Alaska" 1t was supposed
that this was a universal prohibition
to our citizens. But the Paris Court
of Arbitration held that the United
States held no property on the seals
outside of the three-nlile limit of Priby-
loft Islands
In constituting this the Supreme Court
held that as the United States had no
property outside of the thres-mile
limit. the law prohibiting the destruc-
ton of seals 'in the waters of Alaska"
did not apply to pelagfc seal
ing on the high seas. In consequence,
poaching by American vessels was in
effect legalized, and quite number
in Behring Sea, although the Govern
ment has been seeking to show that this
sealing was unjustifiable.
1t is expected, also, that this step by
the United States will have a salutary
effect on the negotiations now in pro-
gress between Great Britain, Canada
and the United States.
Hit will call the bill up to-mor-
row and the purpose is to have it re-
ported and passed with the least delay
possible.