PUBLIC RECORD
OFFICE
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Reference :--
C.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
season
that in the South Orkneys there is the possibility of political complications with the Argentine Government. The "
in the South Shetlands only lasts from six weeks to two months; and so far as our present knowledge goes it is doubtful whether the group is habitable all the year round, as South Georgia and the South Orkneys are.
So far as is known here no applications have been made for licences for Graham's Land. The Argentine Company made an exploring expedition to the Sandwich Islands, but found that it was impossible to carry on whaling there for lack of suitable harbours. Dr. Bruce, of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, has been in negotiation with the Government for a lease of the
A lease was offered to him, but has not been accepted. Seals are found group. in these islands.
It should be observed that experience has shown that it is essential that the grant of leases or licences should be made in one place only to avoid confusion. As some of the com- panies operating in these waters have their headquarters in South America and deal direct with the Colonial Government, it is necessary that the one place should be Port Stanley, and the Secretary of State has made it a rule to refer all European applicants to the Colonial Secretary in the first instance, although this course occasions some complaint on the part of British and Norwegian firms.
Generally speaking it may be said that the whaling industry in the Falkland Islands is an established business regularly dealt with by a Colonial Government in the ordinary course of administration and on principles laid down by local laws. It stands, therefore, on quite a different footing to the grant of licences to uninhabited or unattached islands. But this state- ment of the methods employed may be useful to the Committee as an indication of the kind of problems that arise. It may also be pointed out that the Colonial Government administers the fishery, and incurs expense in maintaining a port of call at Port Stapley. It has, therefore, some claim on the whalers to be recouped its expenditure. But the taxation imposed by the Falklands Government forms no precedent for making the same charges in the case of desert islands where there is no pretence of administration.
Colonial Office,
May, 1910.
APPENDIX V.
THE FALKLAND ISLANDS SEAL FISHERIES.
G. G.
The question of the seal fishery in the Falkland Islands has a long and complicated history, and, as the conditions are different from any which may be expected in uninhabited islands, it does not appear to be worth while, for present purposes, to deal with the fishery in the Colony except in so far as difficulties with foreign Powers are concerned. From that point of view the history of the Falkland Islands since the annexation is instructive,
In the Dependencies the industry is regulated by an Ordinance, No. 6 of 1909, which follows generally the provisions of the Whale Fishery Ordinance. The price of a licence to take seals is £50. Section 6 of the Ordinance authorises the Governor in Council from time to time to declare any Crown land Colonial waters or, with the consent of the owner or lessee, any private land to be a seal reserve, and provides that no licence shall be granted in respect of any such reserves. The reference to private owners was no doubt inserted in view of the South Georgia leases. Those leases prohibit the taking of any animals except whales, but the Government could scarcely establish a seal reserve on the property of the lessees without their consent. A royalty on seals is charged in the Colony, but it has been decided not to charge royalties in the Dependencies to avoid possible political complications. The Governor has authorised the magistrate in South Georgia to grant a sealing licence for this season to a South American whaling company, not one of those in possession of a whaling lease. The terms and conditions were left to the magistrate's discretion after personal inspection of the rookeries, and it is not yet known what conditions he has prescribed. The future policy as regards sealing licences will of course depend largely on the magistrate's report, and until that has been received it is not proposed to take any further action as regards the scaling industry in the Dependency. It has been asserted that indiscriminate slaughter of seals went on prior to the arrival of the magistrate. In view of a possible agitation for the preservation of the seals it may be pointed out in all probability seals will be taken, with or without a licence, and that the best chance of protecting the rookeries and establishing a close time would appear to be to regulate the industry by granting licences, provided the political difficulties do not Norwegian whaling expeditions are commonly organized on the share prove insuperable. principle, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the captains to prevent their men taking seals in order to increase their profits. The "sealing season" in the Colony of the Falkland Islands is from 1st April to 30th September, and the rest of the year is the "close season, ," but different times might be required in the Dependencies.
If the British and Norwegian whalers are required to pay for licences, they will naturally expect the Government to prevent American whalers from taking seals without a licence. It is to be feared that, when the Government tries to do this, its difficulties will begin. At present Americans, Canadians and Chilians raid the seal rookeries in the Colony itself, as they have always done. There is no trouble in consequence, but that is merely because neither the Government nor the private owners have any means of enforcing the laws against poaching, and no attempt is made to interfere with the poachers. It should be said that in 1909 the Foreign Office saw no objection to the issue of a sealing licence for the Sandwich group.
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In the years preceding and following the British occupation of the Falkland Islands the situation in regard to sealing in the Colonial waters was exactly that which will be reproduced if the Secretary of State issues a sealing licence for any of the uninhabited ocean islands, such as the Heard Islands, which the Committee is now considering. It is therefore desirable to give some account of the troubles which cost the Argentine Government their possession of the Falklands, and subsequently embroiled Her Majesty's Government with the United States of America in connexion with the claims of American whalers and sealers. The following account
Gov. is abridged from a Colonial Office Memorandum attached to
F.I., and a Foreign 3056/02-03 Office Memorandum enclosed in
F.0. 26986/08
F.I.
In 1820 the Argentine Government took formal possession of the Falklands as heirs of the Spanish King, and in 1823 gave one Louis Vernet a grant including the use of the fishery and the right to take wild cattle. A few years later the Government issued a decree conferring on the Argentine settlers the exclusive right to the fishery of all the islands. Vernet found several vessels, principally American, engaged in the seal fishery, which had been carried on in these waters for many years. In 1831, after he had issued several warnings, he seized three United States vessels and sent one of them to Buenos Ayres to be tried as a test case. On this the com- mander of the U.S.S. “Lexington" destroyed the settlement on the Falklands and carried off Vernet as a pirate, but released him on the Argentine Government assuming responsi- bility. The ensuing diplomatic correspondence turned partly on the question of the validity of the Spanish and Argentine titles, and to that extent is not here in point. But it is in point that the United States Minister at Buenos Ayres was instructed to maintain that even if the Argentine assumption of sovereignty was justified it gave the Republic no right to exclude United States fishing vessels from the territorial waters. He laid down "that a constant and uninterrupted use of the shores" (of uninhabited regions) "for the purposes of a fishery would give the right, perfect and entire, although settlements on such shores should be subsequently formed or established." And he says that it cannot be contested that citizens of the United States had enjoyed the rights or free fishery in these regions unmolested. (The same statement would apply to the Heard Islands, and to South Georgia, and the other Dependencies.) The correspondence ended with the United States Minister demanding his passports. Shortly after- wards Great Britain took possession of the Falklands, which were derelict. It may be added that the views put forward on behalf of the United States Government on this occasion have been embodied in Wharton's International Law Digest as expressing the policy of the State Department in regard to the customary privileges of American vessels in these waters.
The Argentine Government having been summarily ejected from the Falklanda for inter- fering with American sealers, it became the turn of the British Government to get into troubles over the same question. In 1837 the King's Advocate advised that, assuming Great Britain to be entitled de jure and to be in possession of the Falklands, the British Government could prevent fishing within three miles of the coast, and the naval officer in charge was instructed accordingly. He represented that he had no force to make the prohibition effective. He was then instructed to warn foreign fishermen off, but not to take forcible measures without specific instructions. The sealers naturally laughed at his warnings, and, as no penalty was incurred by disregarding them, no harm was done. In 1854 some deserters from the United States whaling vessel "Hudson" deposed that the crew had been taking whales in Falklands waters, and had destroyed a number of seals on the Government rookeries, and had shot wild cattle. The Governor called on H.M.S. ** Express" to help in arresting the offending master, and the Hudson "
was brought into Port Stanley by force. Commander Lynch, of the U.S. corvette Germantown," protested against the arrest, denied the right of Her Majesty's Government or their grantees to the cattle, and "asserted the right of Americans to occupy the shores or harbours of these islands in this group which were uninhabited and to use them for whaling, sealing, or other fisheries." This, it will be noted, was 22 years after the estab- lishment of a British administration in the Falklands. In spite of the protest the master of
Hudson " was convicted and fined.
the
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Her Majesty's Government expressed their regret to the United States Government for the unlawful arrest of the Express" on the high seas, and tried to set off the threatening language of the commander of the "Germantown against this error of judgment" on the part of the fiovernor and the Naval Authorities. In reply, the United States Government, after dealing with the other matters involved, said that "a still graver matter of complaint was the pretension set up by these" (the Colonial)"authorities to exclude United States citizens from fishing and taking whales in the waters about these islands, which right they had long enjoyed without its being questioned." Her Majesty's Government replied that they would not discuss the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands with any foreign Power, and held themselves entitled by the law of nations to prevent foreigners fishing within three marine leagues of the coast. The United States Government on this climbed down to the extent of saying that they had not intended to raise the question of sovereignty, but that it was "hard to prevent United States fishermen from taking whales in the neighbourhood of uninhabited islands where they had for long done so unmolested." Her Majesty's Government had the best of the diplomatic argument, but it is clear that they did not feel very sure of their ground in dealing with the claims of the 'nited States fishermen. The Colonial Office told the Admiralty that "it was possible that Tnited States citizens might have acquired in some portions of the group a right of fishing by user, and constant and uninterrupted enjoyment, with the full knowledge of Spain, during the Spanish occupation." The Governor was instructed to inquire into this possibility. He reported that United States claims to the fishery on the score of user were not substantiated. The question was referred several times to the Queen's Advocate, and though he was clear as to the British claim, he advised " great caution and discretion" in enforcing it against United States vessels, in view of the fact that they had practically enjoyed the liberty of fishing for many years.