10825.
No. 63.
(CANADA.)
LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.
After reciting the following reference, the Law Officers report as on page
GENTLEMEN,
Foreign Office to Law Officers of the Crown.
2
Foreign Office, May 17, 1894. I HAVE the honour to transmit to you, by direction of the Earl of Kimberley, the papers noted in the accompanying list, which relate to the case of the British auxiliary steam schooner" Worlock," of Victoria, British Columbia, which was deprived of her papers, gear, &c., by the Russian authorities at Petropaulovsk in September last, and ordered to proceed to Yokohama to be dealt with by Her Majesty's Consul there.
It will be seen from the accompanying Despatch from Her Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires in Japan (Mr. de Bunsen's No. 129 of the 2nd December 1893, Paper A), and from the protocol of inspection drawn up by the Russian authorities at Petropaulovsk, of which copy is therein inclosed, that the Worlock" left Columbia on the 10th June 1893, for the purpose, as stated by the master, of sealing along the American coast and in the Pacific Ocean; that, in consequence of a breakage of her engine, she only reached Sand Point on the 28th July, the master having decided to go and seal outside the prohibited zone round the Commander Islands; that, in view of the necessity of further repairs and refitting, he there obtained a trade certificate for taking to Petropaulovsk (which is situated within the prohibited zone herein-after mentioned, and where the "Worlock" arrived on the 5th September) a cargo which he specified as consisting of eight guns and other gear for sealing and fishing, and salt for the preservation of skins.
In view of the character of the alleged cargo, the Russian authorities held the certificate to be irregular, and obtained merely for the purpose of enabling the vessel to visit those waters, with, as they inferred, the intention of refitting and of subsequently engaging in the otter fishing in the Russian territorial waters on the coasts of Kamschatka and of the Commander Islands.
They therefore seized her papers and gear, but instead of bringing the case before their own Courts for a breach of Russian municipal law, as it was presumably within their competence to do, they proceeded to deal with the case as if it constituted a breach of the then recent Sealing Agreement concluded between Great Britain and Russia of May 1893 (Paper B),
This Agreement provides for the prohibition of killing, taking, or hunting seals within zones of 10 and 30 miles respectively round portions of the Russian coasts and islands in the North Pacific.
It was enforced, so far as this country is concerned, by an Order in Council of the 4th July 1893 (Paper C), which applied the provisions of "The Seal Fishery (North Pacific) Act, 1893" (Paper D), within the limits specified in the Agreement.
In obedience to the orders of the Russian authorities, the "Worlock" proceeded to Yokohama under a temporary certificate, and reported herself to Her Majesty's Consul there, to whom her papers, gear, and the protocol of the proceedings at Petropaulovsk were handed by the Russian Consul.
Her Majesty's Consul, after careful consideration in consultation with the Crown Prosecutor, came to the conclusion that, as the protocol disclosed no evidence that the master of the "Worlock" had hunted or attempted to take seals within the limits prescribed in the above-mentioned Agreement, proceedings, if taken in Her Majesty's Court for Japan, would assuredly fail. He did not, therefore, feel justified in submitting the case to the Court, and he accordingly released the vessel, and returned to the master her
79871,-23.
papers and
25.-6/94.
gear.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
11C.O.885
سياسيا
14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-