No. 27.
Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Bayard.
United States Legation,
Tokio, Japan, October 10, 1887. (Received November
2.)
No. 393.]
Sir: I have the honor herewith to inclose
for the information of the Department of State, copies,
respectively, of my note to Count Ito, and his reply thereto,
relating to the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea.
I am requested to call the attention of my Government respectfully
and especially to the proposed reciprocal protection of the
sea-otter, and to enlarge the protected zone so as to embrace the
known habitat of that animal.
I took occasion to say unofficially to Count Ito that I had no
hesitation in giving him the hopeful assurance that my Government
would co-operate with his excellency’s Government in the proposal to
include sea-otter as well as fur seal in any reasonable arrangement
which would prevent unregulated and indiscriminate slaughter of this
valuable animal
[Page 1847]
in the
waters of Behring Sea as well as on the coasts of Japan and in their
conterminous waters. I shall have the honor to await, in deference
to Count Ito’s expressed request, your instructions in response to
the respectful proposition of the Japanese Government before
entering upon any formal negotiations on this subject. On receipt of
this dispatch by the Department of State, I have the honor to
suggest that if the reply to my cablegram of the 29th ultimo has
been mailed to this legation by the Department, that in that end a
brief telegram signifying your willingness to include the sea-otter
in the said negotiations would advance the negotiations and gratify
this Government as well, who manifests a deep interest in securing
an early arrangement by our respective governments for the better
protection of the fur-seal and sea-otter fisheries in American and
Japanese waters.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
393.]
Mr. Hubbard
to Count Ito
Hirobumi.
United States Legation,
Tokio, October 6,
1887.
Sir: I have the honor herewith to
forward to your excellency, and to beg your early and favorable
consideration of, a copy of an instruction which I have had the
honor to receive from the Department of State of my
Government.
The general proposition respectfully submitted in this
instruction by my Government, as well as the obvious and
convincing reasons there set forth in favor of its adoption by
the friendly powers named therein, will, I am sure, receive from
your excellency’s Government the same earnest consideration as
they have received from the United States.
As already indicated unofficially to the foreign office, I shall,
in furtherance of the wishes and instructions of my Government,
be gratified and obliged if your excellency will formally
appoint any future time and place when and where I may have the
honor to confer and discuss with your excellency, or any other
representative of His Imperial Majesty’s Government, the subject
of an arrangement or special convention between the United
States of America and the Empire of Japan having reference to
the better protection of the fur-seal fisheries in Behring
Sea.
I avail, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No.
393.—Translation.]
Count Ito
Hirobumi to Mr. Hubbard.
Department for Foreign Affairs,
Tokio, October 8, 1887.
No. 8584].
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your excellenty’s note of the 6th instant, in
which you are pleased to inclose the copy of a communication
from the honorable the Secretary of State in reference to the
seal fisheries in Behring Sea, and, in pursuance of instructions
contained in that dispatch, invite His Imperial Majesty’s
Government to enter into an arrangement with the Government of
the United States having for its object the protection of fur
seals in Behring Sea from indiscriminate destruction and
consequent extermination.
The unregulated and indiscriminate slaughter of the sea-otter as
well as the fur seal on the coasts of Japan and in their
conterminous waters is a subject which has for many years
engaged the serious attention of the Imperial Government.
The experience of His Imperial Majesty’s Government justifies the
belief that the end sought to be obtained can be best secured by
means of a co-operative international action, and they therefore
cordially approve of the suggestion of the honorable the
Secretary of State.
His Imperial Majesty’s Government would be willing to enter into
an arrangement for the purpose indicated, but they would wish,
for the reasons assigned by Mr. Bayard in favor of the
protection of the fur seal in Behring Sea, to extend the
principle
[Page 1848]
of
protection to the sea-otter as well as the far seal, and to
enlarge the protected zone so as to embrace the known habitat of
that animal.
I beg that you will bring this proposal to the attention of the
Government of the United States, and I would suggest that this
be done in advance of any negotiations on the subject.
I avail myself, etc.