Evening star., 1897-01-22
PELAGIc~ SIS EALING
Mr. Elliott Talks on tlhs l,s. Sweeping Answer
fthe British 0ommiaaionsrs.
Necessity Of the Di,sley Bill to Stop
the Canadians shown American
Commissfoners' Faith Misplaced.

The sweeping answer of the British fur
seal commissioners to the charge Of injury
done to the Alaskan fur seal herd by Pc
lagic sealing. has stirred up number Of
gentlemen who are more or less familiar
with the question. A Star reporter this
morning saw Mr.. Henry w. Elliott, who
has had great deal Of personal exper-
ience with the question, and who expressed
himself as follows:
THE recent London cable purportinR to
be the views of the British seal commis-
sioners who went up. with an American, to
the Seal Islands of Alaska last summer.
was great surprise to the Treasury and
State Department people. The American
agents. headed by DR.. David Starr Jordan,
were very emphatic in assuring their
friends that they had at last secured an
unqualified agreement with the British
sealing; and that when these English off,
GERS wert heard from their reports would
so bear them out.
Faith Badly Placed.
Therefore, the London cable giving di-
rectly the views of one Of the two British
agents. shows that the faith Of the Ameri-
can commissioners has been badly placed
The English report fairly adds impertln-
ence to injury: 1t declares that the seals
instead of being injured on the Pribilof Is
lands are actually increasing! and In
short. Is SO radically opposed to the find
Ing of DR.. Jordan and his associates that
1t reflects on their common sense.
When the Dingley seal bill. which was
devised by Mr.. Dingley two years ago. to
prevent the continuation Of this indecent
and wasteful loss of seal life on the Prib-
lof Islands (and which was passed by the
House IN 1885, and again in 1895, by
unanimous vote, was before the Senate
foreign relations committee last February
Mr.. Sherman said that he wanted to try
the good sense and generosity of Great
Britain just once more before passing such
drastic bill.
Tried 1t for Nine Years.
"Mr. Frye reminded him that this had
been tried without the least result for bet
terment, for nine long consecutive years.
and he for one was not willing to continue
the shameful exhibition of seal butchery in
Alaskan waters; that nothing would come
Of further negotiation unless we stepped in.
and declared our intention to take the seals
ourselves, end their misery, by decently
killing them on the islands, rather than to
let them be indecently killed in the water.
thereby. annually entailing the starvation
OF tens Of thousands of helpless young
seals on the islands (their mothers slaught-
cred at seal. ,-r
THE committee sustained. Mr. Frye by a
practically unanimous vote: the Dingley
bill was made special order for March
10th last. and then Mr., Olney stepped in,
and requested that the measure be held up
for the present, saying that he was sue
cessfully negotiating swith Great Britain
for a revision of the cruel Paris regula-
tions. and the passage Of the Dingley bill
at that time would greatly embarrass, if
rot defeat these negotiations.
Mr.. Frye had no alternative. Mr.. Omey
assumed the responsibility, and now is en-
titled to the reward Of making an utter
failure to secure any. tangible respite for
the unhappy seals. iorf
Canadians for Business.
The Canadians are not fools, they in
this thing for politics and for business;
under existing rules, they can get more
seals than We can, .because they can take
female seals, and we cannot,
''As long as the Canadian has this advan~
tage of us. he is not going to let it slip
from his grasp. He VIII permit any NUM-
ber Of commissions to go up and talk the
subject over; he does not care how we talk,
so long we talk and demonstrate in
words; until we take action by passing the
Dingley bill, he will continue to indecently
kill our seals, and mock at our protests"