Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-04-12
LEFT IT IN A MESS.
What Arbitration Has Done for the
Seal Question.
TWO "fR1ENDLY' NATIONS AT OUTS

1WV fh1ENUL1" NAT1UNS Al OUTS
With . Situation That II IT Remains MAY
Easily Eventuate In War Salisbury and
Olney Practically Exchange Ultimatums
Senator Voorhees,. of Indiana, Passes
Z" the Majority After Lifetime in the
Public Service-Funeral Arrangements.
Washington, April 12.-The recent ap-
pointment Of ex-Secretary Foster and
ex-Assistant Secretary Eamlin by the
president to assist in the negotiations
now in progress with Great Britain re-
specting the Behring sea seal fisheries is
Indicative that this long standing dipio-
matte issue has at last assumed grave
Importance and tina. an earnest effort is
to be made to end the present unsati;-
factory state of affairs, or at least -
place the subject on such a footing he
fore the beginning of the approaching
open season as will prevent it from
passing into more serious phase. The
diplomatic correspondence of the past
year makes it evident that a severe
strain was placed upon the patience of
the officials of both the United States
and Great Britain, and the warning
given quietly yet firmly by the British
premier that further proceedings by the
of last years programme could not be
tolerated, and the intimation from Sec
rotary Olney that there would be no
change unless additional restrictions
We're imposed upon the British sealing
vessels. hold out latent possibilities of a
serious ENHANCEMENT of the two friend
II" powers unless some angement
can be made before the end of May
Where the Trouble Begins Again.
The trouble appears to have begun
principally through the refusal of the
British authorities to renew last year
the regulations requiring British vessels
going into sealing waters to place their
firearms under seal, to give effect to the
Paris regulation prohibiting the use of
such weapons in killing seals This reg
ulation was laid down on evidence that
a large proportion CT the seals killed
with guns sank and were never recover
ed, involving wasteful mortality. The
British having refused to seal up their
arms the United States government
adopted the plan Of making a most
thorough search Of every sealing vessel
in Behring sea. There was justification
for a seach in the regulations, but
again the British government protested,
claiming that British vessels were
thereby subjected to unnecessary and
most veXtatious detention, and that the
only result was the discovery of one skin
in which the American boarding officer
thought he saw shot wound and of a
lpp hook few dave in in ,fria
Yet for this twenty-six out of twenty
nine British vessels in the seal waters
were searched eighty-two times, one
vessel being boarded six times in TWEEN
ty-four days.
Another Issue Upon the ssTIigh Seas"
Secretary Olney, on the other hand,
justified the course of the revenue off,
GERS by pointing out that all of the three
seized vessels were convicted in British
courts. He also gave some startling
figures to show the need of the addi-
tional restrictive regulations which he
invited the British government to ac-
cept. Efforts were made to devise some
way of ensuring the seal against the use
of firearms by 'poachers,' but they
came to nothing, and the upshot was
that both sides stood firm, the British
warning against further indiscriminate
search of British vessels and Secretary
Olney standing on our right to make it.
Meanwhile an expert commission sent
out by both governments made an ex-
haustive report tending to sustain Sec
rotary Olney's assertions regarding the
probable determination of the seals I'M
der the present conditions, and it must
be upon this basis that the negotiations
will now proceed.