Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-07-05
CHARGES BREACH OF FAITH,
Secretary Sherman's Alleged Note 10
England on the Seal Question,

Secretary Sherman's Alleged Note TO
England on the Seal Question.
The London Chronicle published yester-
day the following dispatch from its special
correspondent in Washington:
Coming swift on the heels of specia!
jubilee ambassadors and other expressions
of amity and good fellowship on the part
of the United States to Great Britain it will
be an unpleasant surprise to the British
public to know that the present admins
tration In its diplomatic intercourse with
England is adopting tone as offensive al
most as that which charac terized the con-
duct of international affairs under Presi-
dent Cleveland. In the course of a few
days, possibly early as next Wednes-
day, the President will transmit to Con-
gress correspondence relating to the seal
fisheries, which is being closely guarded
by the State Department, and no mention
OF which has appeared in any American
paper. The correspondence is somewhat
voluminous, the most important dispatch
bearing date of May 10 last, and being in
the form of an instruction from Secretary
OF State Sherman to Col John Hay a COPY
OF which Hay was directed to leave with
Lord Salisbury. In this instruction which
covers six or eight large printed pages the
efforts made by the United States and
Great Britain to carry out the terms of
the Paris award arr reviewed at length
and while il is claimed that this country
has loyalty lived up to the terms of the
findings Of that tribunal, the insinua ton is
made that England has been guilty of bad
faith. While evasion. duplicity and bad
faith are not charged in set terms that is
the tenor of the dispatch, and its publica-
ton will undoubtedly cause irritation and
resentment in England
The dispatch is nominally signed by
Sherman as Secretary of State, but is really
the joint work of eX-Secretary of State
Foster. special seal ambassador and ex-
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Ham,
lin, special seal commissioner. 1t of
course. received sanction and approval of
Mckinley before it was sent.
The administration, / am told, is very
proud of this dispatch and believes it will
be received with almost as much popular
dispatch. That peculiar form of cha uvinsm
known as .Americanism is the keynote of
the administrations foreign policy. and as
a member Of the administration, familiar
with the text of the dispatch, said to me:
The administration will not be charged
with being un-American or wanting in
courage in dealing with England
Although the dispatch was received by
Lord Salisbury early in May. with the ex-
ception of a formal acknowledgment of its
receipt, no answer has yet been made by
the foreign Office.
'One of the latest dispatches in the cor
reSpondence Is scarcely less offensive than
that of May TO- although milder in tone
The attention Of the British government is
called to the fact that while this govern
ment has maintained fleet of five vessels
IN Bering Sea to prevent Illegal sealing the
British fleet has consisted of but two ships
one of which Is nothing more than a Yacht
which is also a reflection upon British good
faith In living up to the terms of the Paris
award"