The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-08-03
THE ALASKA SEALS.
A Letter From the President of the North
American Commercial Company.

London, August 2.-Mr. Herman
Liebes, president of III. Liebes & Co., ol
San Francisco, which firm, with Mr.
David Ogden Mills, the New York bank
er, and Mr. .Lloyds Tevis, president of the
Wells Fargo express system, compose the
North American commercial company
has addressed letter to the Times in
which, among other things, he says:
Il and my colleagues of the North
American Commercial company entirely
dlsclalm any desire for measures 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 'surren-
| der the exercise of lucrative industry
without receiving an equivalent merely
IN order to increase our actual and pro-
spectlye prospects,
Professor Thompson's conclusions
with reference to the decrease in the
supply of seals are very unsatisfactorys
he says, We may set the 30 600 skin.
taken this year against the 100, coo that
were got with neither more nor less
difficulty in the plentitude of the supply.
We should then have to admit that the
herd was now something less than one
third of what it was 90 years ago. Even
III uillo dstiulSSlOu We sttiiulU UOO IHuCll lOI
apart from other corrections that might
be suggested we should merely add for
the purpose of such a comparison to the
30, 900 taken on the island the number of
males takenin the sea, but this, for lack
TO better knowledge Of the proportion of
aech sex and age in the pelagio catch we
acnnot do.
- = ~ see from notice which appeared in
the Standard of July IA that Sir Louis
I'll. Davies, Canadian minister of marine
fisheries, recently made q statement to a
representative OF Reuters agency to the
effect that Pelagic sealing employs a
large number of.whjte people and Indians,
while not less than 5000 Canadians are
dependent upon the industry.
Professor Thompson, in his report,
gives the number of vessels and the num-
Der of people employed in the catch for
the year 1896. There were, according to
his report, 65 vessels employed in the work
having in the aggregate, crews of 500
white men and SS9 Indians, or sos in all.
where, may | ask, are the 5000 Cana
dians to whom Sir LII. Davies alludes as
being dependent on the industry, un-
less they be the shareholders, Of the COM
panies 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 men,
toned in the arbitratOrs award were
asked to give evidence before the COM
mittee of the prices paid to the ship
owners for the seals caught during those
years and it appeared that the claims
on behalf of the vessels seized were exces-
sive both in quantity and price.
Every effort is being made by the COM
mission appointed for the purpose for as
sessing the compensation in British Col
umbia, consisting of the chief justice of
Canada and judge of the United States
and who are now sitting there to come
to conclusion upon the point. What
ever compensation is awarded will be
promptly paid.
upon those who oppose SO unreason-
able a request must rest the responsibility
for the consequences that must inevitably
ensue, viz: the ultimate determination
of the seal from the Pacific ocean by the
barbarous process of killing the mothers
and starving their young.
II think that having regard to the
facts above stated and the end in view,
you will hardly consider the attempt to
secure some alteration in the present
system 'ungracious.