The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-31
SALISBURY CONSENTS
GEN. JOHN w. FOSTERS MISSION TO
EUROPE SUCCESSFUL.
ference on PeIagfc Sealing to BE
Held in Washington.
ELLIOTTS LETTER TO DAY
EX-SECRETARY FOSTER EXCORIA-
TED BY THE BERING SEA EXPERT.
Commercial Treaties with Germany
ain-GeneraI Foreign News.

LONDON, July 9O.-Mr. John W. Foster,
the United States special commissioner on
! the sealing question, will sail for New York
! tomorrow by the steamer st. Louis from
Southampton. In the course of an inter-
view to-day Mr.. Foster said Wherever l
have been-at st. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris
| or here in London--I have been received in
the most cordial manner Whatever may
be the feeling in the United States anent
! the often reported antagonism to our gov
ernment displayed by foreign powers, 1
have seen nothing of it. Everywhere 1
have had evidence that the foreign govern
ments wish to meet any question raised by
tbo United States in the spirit of the ut
most frankness and mindedness. Per-
| haps it is needless fer me to say that this
! is most gratifying to me, officially and in
my private capacity. The British govern
| ment has agreed to accept proposition
| for sealing conference. l am now re-
turning to make an immediate report to
! President Mckinley. l have had long and
| entirely candid conferences with Mr.. Cham
| berlain, and last Sunday l passed the day
with Sir Richard Webster the attorney
| general who is the adviser of the British
| government on the points of law involved.
| My statements met with the frankest and
most impartial consideration.
LAS to the Hawaiian question I may say
that in London, Paris, Berlin and st. Pc
tersburg L have had ample opportunity to
ascertain the prevailing sentiment in po-
litical and commercial circles. In all these
capitals annexation is generally regarded
as the natural, if not inevitable result of
the large growth and expansion of the
| United States on the western coast of
| America. AS it could not be expected" con-
| tinued Mr.. Foster, that any other for
! egn power would be permitted to occupy
the islands, owing to their strategic i'm
| portance. the proposed annexation would
| be acquiesced in by the European govern
mmts, although the position which it would
| give the United States in the Pacific would
not be welcomed by nations seeking su-
| premacy in that quarter of the world My
| personal views on this question are Well
| known in the Unssd States. Nevertheless
it is extremely gratifying that the neces-
sary expansion of the United States will
not be the cause Of European difficulties
and is appreciated as the logical outcome of
American destiny"
The British Foreign Office notified EN-
| bassador Hay this morning that Great Brit
! ain accepted the proposition of the United
! states LOT an lulOIitdtlOlldl conference Oh
the question of pelagtc sealing in Bering
sea- to be held in Washington during the
! coming autumn.
The Times editorally congratuates it's
readers on the fact that the negotiations
regarding the question Of pelagic sealing in
! the Bering sea have resulted in an agree
ment for an international conference on
the subject, to be held in Washington in
1 10 49,. II a..
| and Japan will take part in the conference
which will not have revising powers. I'VE
are glad to note" the paper says, that
| the United States government has SO far
modified its views since The sending of the
Sherman dispatch. part from which there
was never any real difficulty, both govern
ments desiring to protect a legitimate in
dustry and only differing as to facts and
methods.
EIIiOtt's Bitter Letter to Day.
CLEVELAND. o., July 3O.-Prof Henry
W.. Elliott, of the Smithsonian Institution,
| tonight gave out the complete text of his
recent sensational letter to Judge Day, as
sistant secretary of state, regarding the
| seal fisheries. 1t is dated Lakewood, O.,
near Cleveland, July Is. The letter reads:
Dear Sir-In the morning Recorder of
! this city appears the text Of a letter to
Lord Salisbury dated May 10, 1897. and
| signed by Ohm Sherman, secretary of state,
| on the fur seal question. This letter is pre-
| faced by an account of the great embarrass-
! ment which its publication has caused the
| President and that it has been held up for
| several days at the request of John w
| Foster who now fears the effect of his own
| work a few weeks earlier.
"Inasmuch as L have closer personal
| knowledge of this present question than
| any other man living and vastly more ex-
! tended, and inasmuch as 1 am the author
| of the modus vivendi of 189l-lS93. which is
the only creditable step taken by our gov
| ernment towards settling this seal dispute
! since 1t began in 1890. up to date / desire
! to say that after careful perusal of this
| letter of May 10, above cited the President
| has reason to feel greatly embarrassed be-
| cause it lays the State Department open
! to a crushing reply from the Canadian Of
| flee and you Will be in the same mortify-
| ing fix that Blaine found himself in dur
ing 1880, when the Canadians simply
crushed his letter by the data which they
promptly furnished in Tebuttal. IneXperi-
enced and ignorant men should not write
such letters dealing with data about which
they know no more than so many parrots
John w. Foster is utterly ignorant of the
truth in regard to the salient features of
this seal question on the islands: that letter
of May 10 is like all other preparations from
his hand on this subject-full of gross err
rors. His dullness in making up the Ameri-
can case in lSS2-93 cost us that shameful
and humiliating defeat which we met with
at Paris in 1893. Had he been bright and
quick-witted he never would have met with
such disaster. Taking this commonplace
man up now after this record of fat failure
is stamped all over his anatomy and put
! ting him in charge of your sealing dues-
ton will only thrust you deeper into the
mire than he and your predecessors have
been placed before by the bright men over
| the line al Ottawa.
Il am moved to write you on this point
/ because a senator of the United States re-
! Gently said to me that Foster had assured
the President that the information which
| gave the British in 1880 caused the defeat
of the American case at Paris in 1898 The
| meanness and untruth of this charge will
be quickly seen by your turning to my re-
port Of Nov. II, 1890, which contains this
! Information. Mr.. Foster and his stupid as
sociates tried TO suppress this report cause
il contained the proof of my authorship of
the modus vivendi of 1S9l-93, which he mean
/ ly stole from me-pla giarlzed in fact: but
he was unable TO suppress it. And now that
he comes forward again to figure in this
question | intend that he shall be required
/ at the proper time and before the proper
/ tribunal TO give q full account of his
/ wretched record as the agent OF the United
States before the Bering sea tribunal at
Paris in 1893.
This whole sealing business, from the
day the trouble began, in lS90-a1 up to date
has not been in the hands of a competent
man for one moment. II has been and is
now the sport of the Canadians and the