Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-08-04
ON PsLaGic SEALING.
Herman Leibes Gives His Opinion 10 . Letter
10 the londoa Times.

| London, Aug Herman Liebes,
| president OF ii. Liebes & Co. Of San
| Francisco. which firm with David
/ ogden Mills, the New York banker and
| Lloyd Tevis, president of Wells Fargo
4 Cos. express system, compose the
! North American Commercial Co. has
| addressed n letter to the Times in which
among other things. he says:
II and my colleagues of the North
American Commercial Co. entirely dis
claim and desire for measurers made in
the interests OF one nationality and
against the interests of the other and
| we do not and never have suggested
that the English government should
| surrender the exercise of lucrative
| industry without receiving an equiva-
| lent merely in order To increase our
actual and prospective profits. Pro-
fessor Thoinpsons conclusions with
reference to the decrease in the supply
of seals are very unsatisfactory. He
says: We may set the 10000 skins
taken this year against the 100. 900 that
were got with neither more nor less
difficulty in the plentitude of the sup
ply. We should then have to admit
that the herd was now something less
than one-third of what ii was 20 years
ago. Even in this admission we admit
too much, for apart from other cor
rections that might be suggested we
should merely add for the purpose of
such a comparison to the 10000 taken
on the islands, the number of males
taken in the sea. but this for lack of
better knowledge of the proportion of
each sex and age in the pelagic catch
we cannot do
Il see from notice which appeared
in the Stadard Of July IA, that Sir
Louis II. Davis, Canadian minister of
marine fisheries. recently made a
statement to a representative of Reu-
ters agency TO the effect that pelagic
sealing employs a large number of
white people and Indians while not less
than 5000 Canadians are dependent up
on the industry. Professor Thompson.
in his report gives the number of ves-
sells and the number of people employed
in the catch FOR the year 1896. There
We're, according to this report SIS yes
sells employed in the work having in
the aggregate crews of 500 white men
and $50 Indians or 1898 in ALL
Where may | ask are the 5000 Can
adams to whom Sir L. H. Davies
alludes as being dependent on the in
dustry, unless they be the shareholders
of the companies owning the various
vessels? All the merchants who had
purchased the pelagic seal catches
from the ships which had not been
seized by the United States government
during the years mentioned in the ar
bitrators' award were asked to give
evidence before the committee of the
prices paid to the shipowners for the
seals caught during those years and ii
appeared that the claims made on be-
half of the vessels seized We're exces-
sive both in quantity and price.
Every effort is being made by the
commission appointed for the purpose
Tor assessing the compensation in
british Columbia consisting of the chief
Justice of Canada and a judge of the
united states. and who are now sitting
there TO come to a conclusion upon TN.
point. Whatever compensation is
awarded will be promptly paid.
Upon those who oppose so reason
able request must rest the responsi-
piilty Tor the consequences that must
inevitably ensue. viz: The ultimate ex.
termination of the seal from the Pa
enc ocean by the barbarous process of
killing the mothers and starving their
young. l think that having regard 10
tHe Iacts above stated and the end in
view you will hardly consider the at
tempt TO secure some alteration in tha
present system ungracious.'