No. 16.
Mr. White to Mr. Bayard.

No. 725.]

Sir: Referring to your instructions Nos. 685, 782, and 810, to Mr. Phelps’ dispatches Nos. 618 and 690, and to subsequent correspondence, I have the honor to acquaint you that I called at the foreign office on the 16th instant for the purpose of discussing with the Marquis of Salisbury and M. de Staal, the Russian ambassador, the details of the proposed conventional arrangement for the protection of seals inBehring Sea.

M. de Staal expressed a desire, on behalf of his Government, to include in the area to be protected by the convention the sea of Okhotsk, or at least that portion of it in which Robben Island is situated, there being, he said, in that region large numbers of seals, whose destruction is threatened in the same way as those in Behring Sea.

He also nrged that measures be taken by the insertion of a clause in the proposed convention or otherwise, for prohibiting the importation, by merchant vessels, into the seal-protected area, for sale therein, of alcoholic drinks, fire-arms, gunpowder, and dynamite.

Lord Salisbury expressed no opinion with regard to the latter proposal, but, with a view to meeting the Russian Government’s wishes respecting the waters surrounding Robben Island, he suggested that, besides the whole of Behring Sea, those portions of the Sea of Okhotsk and of the Pacific Ocean north of north latitude 47° should be included in the proposed arrangement.

His lordship intimated furthermore that the period proposed by the United States for a close time, April 15 to November 1, might interfere with the trade longer than absolutely necessary for the protection of the seals, and he suggested October 1, instead of a month later, as the termination of the period of seal protection.

I referred to the communications already made by Mr. Phelps on this subject to Lord Salisbury, and said that I should be obliged to refer to you the proposals which had just been made, before expressing an opinion with regard to them.

I have accordingly the honor to ask for instructions in reference to the same.

Meanwhile the Marquis of Salisbury promised to have prepared a draught convention for submission to the Russian ambassador and to myself. I shall lose no time in forwarding to you a copy of this document when received.

I am, etc.,

Henry White.