No. 17.
Mr. Bayard to Mr. White.

No. 864

Sir: Your dispatch No. 725 of the 20th ultimo stating the result of your interview with Lord Salisbury and the Russian ambassador relative to the protection of seals in Behring Sea, and requiting further instructions as to their proposals, has been received.

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As you have already been instructed, the Department does not object to the inclusion of the sea of Okhotsk, or so much of it as may be necessary, in the arrangement for the protection of the seals. Nor is it thought absolutely necessary to insist on the extension of the close season till the 1st of November.

Only such a period is desired as may be requisite for the end in view. But in order that success may be assured in the efforts of the various governments interested in the protection of the seals, it seems advisable to take the 15th of October instead of the 1st as the date of the close season, although, as I am now advised, the 1st of November would be safer.

The suggestion made by Lord Salisbury that it may be necessary to bring other governments than the United States, Great Britain, and Russia into the arrangement has already been met by the action of the Department, as I have heretofore informed you. At the same time the invitation was sent to the British Government to negotiate a convention for seal protection in Behring Sea, alike invitation was extended to various other powers, which have without exception returned a favorable response.

In order, therefore, that the plan may be carried out, the convention proposed between the United States, Great Britain, and Russia should contain a clause providing for the subsequent adhesion of other powers.

In regard to the suggestion of the Russian ambassador that the convention be made to cover the question of the sale of fire-arms and liquor to the natives on the coasts in question, I am compelled to think, while in favor of restricting or prohibiting such sale, that it would be advisable to regulate the subject separately from the protection of the seals. It is possible that some governments might readily assent to the latter object, while indisposed to accede to the former, and in that way lead to the defeat of the end first proposed by this Government.

I am, etc.,

T. F. Bayard.