5000.
No. 102A.
(CANADA.)
LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.
MY LORD,
Royal Courts of Justice, February 18, 1896. We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Bertie's letter of the 7th instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the draft of a Despatch to Her Majesty's Ambassador at Washington, requesting his Excel- lency to bring to the notice of the United States Government complaints which had been made against their revenue-cruisers during the sealing season of 1895 in Behring Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, and requesting that your Lordship might be favoured with our opinion as to whether the instructions to Sir J. Pauncefote were such as might properly be issued, or whether they might advantageously be modified or amended in any way, and, if so, in what respects.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands, we have the honour to
Report-
That, in our opinion, the instructions to Sir J. Pauncefote are such as may properly be issued.
The only suggestion we have to make is that on the sixth page of the draft Despatch there should be added, after the word
'forfeiture,' the following
sentence :-
"
**
Even by the United States Law no general power is conferred to board and search vessels without specific ground for suspicion."
We have, &c.
RICHARD E. WEBSTER. ROBERT B. FINLAY.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :→→
TH
C.O.885
14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
(No. 33.)
SIR,
DESPATCH REFERRED TO IN FOREGOING OPINION.
The MARQUESS OF SALISBURY to Sir J. PAUNCEFOTE.
Foreign Office, February 21, 1896.
I ENCLOSE, for your Excellency's information, copies of correspondence, as marked in the margin,† respecting the sealing season of 1895, and the proceedings of the United States revenue-cruisers in searching and seizing British vessels without sufficient cause.
You are authorised to communicate to the United States Government copies of the letter from the Collector of Customs at Victoria of the 15th October, the declaration of Isaac A. Gould, and the list of boardings, which are annexed to the Colonial Office letter of the 24th December, marked (A).
It appears from those papers that out of twenty-nine vessels which had then returned from Behring Sea, no less than twenty-six had been boarded by United States officers, and these, in the aggregate, eighty-two times. The average was, therefore, more than three boardings for each vessel, and in one case, that of the “Sapphire," the vessel was boarded six times in the course of twenty-four days. In nearly every instance, the seal- skins were overhauled and examined and left in confusion, and on each occasion they had to be repacked in salt by the crews. The net result of all this labour and annoyance was that the entries in the log-book of the " Beatrice" were found to be a few days in arrear, and that a hole was discovered in one seal-skin out of a cargo of 386 on board the "E. B. Marvin," which, in the opinion of the United States naval officer, had the appearance of being a shot wound. Both these vessels were seized, and were subse- quently sent to Victoria for trial.
Admiral Stephenson and the Officer Commanding Her Majesty's ship "Pheasant" have also commented on the frequency with which the vessels were visited, and on the
* Sic, obviously" torfeited.”
† Admiralty, November 21 and December 6; Colonial Office, December 23 (A) and 24 (B), 1893, and January 6, 1896.
บ 90236.-13.
25.--3,96.