CO885-(13-15) — Page 381

14134.

No. 69A.

(CANADA.)

LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.

[After reciting the following reference, the Law Officers report as on page 2 :-]

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1

GENTLEMEN,

FOREIGN OFFICE to LAW OFFICERS OF THE CROWN.

Foreign Office, August 3, 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 a proposed Convention for the settlement of the Behring Sea claims brought forward by British subjects, which, by mutual arrangement between Her Majesty's Government and that of the United States, were to be satisfied as soon as the arrangements for giving effect to the award of the Behring Sea Arbitration Tribunal had been completed."

This condition having been fulfilled, it was arranged that Her Majesty's Ambassador should conduct the negotiations for the Convention at Washington, and on the 19th June last he forwarded a rough draft of a Convention for the settlement of these claims (Paper A).

This draft was referred to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, who at once communicated, by telegraph, with the Canadian Government on the subject.

The result of these communications will be found in the letter from the Colonial Office of the 4th ultimo (Paper B), and from this communication it will be seen that the Canadian Government considered the draft Convention acceptable except as to the proposal for the deduction from the claims for the expenses of the Commission.

In the meanwhile, Mr. Gresham had prepared a counter-draft of Convention, based on the original draft of Sir Julian Pauncefote. This will be found enclosed in his Excellency's Despatch, No. 155, of the 17th ultimo (Paper C).

This counter-draft contains variations of a more or less important character. Alterations occur in the third and fourth recitals, which Sir J. Pauncefote thinks do not appear operf to objection.

Article I. varies the terms of the corresponding Article of Sir J. Pauncefote's draft, but not the substance.

Article III. provides that no compensation shall be paid if it be proved that the vessel was wholly or in part the actual property of a citizen of the United States.

Sir J. Pauncefote criticizes these alterations at length in his Despatch above referred to, and also deals with the United States' view with regard to the expenses of the Commission.

Further Despatches from Her Majesty's Ambassador, Nos. 154, 159, and 161 of the 17th, 20th, and 24th ultimo, are also enclosed (Papers D, E, and F), explaining additional alterations which it has been found necessary to make in various Articles of the Convention.

On the 24th and 27th ultimo, the Colonial Office (Papers G and H) forwarded telegrams from the Governor-General of Canada remonstrating against the proposeit change in the fourth recital of the draft Convention, and also against the qualification which it is proposed to insert at the end of the IIIrd Article.

The whole correspondence having been referred to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, a letter was received from the Colonial Office on the 1st instant (Paper I) stating that, with regard to the modification of the fourth recital proposed in Mr. Gresham's counter-draft, Lord Ripon presumes that it is not the intention of the United States to raise any questions as to their liability beyond those distinctly reserved in the first paragraph of the Finding of Facts annexed to the decision of the tribunal, viz., the amount of damages, and the question of the nationality of the owner of the vessel, which were withdrawn from the tribunal by consent. He thinks it would be well, however, to prevent any question being raised, that the points which are left to be determined by the Commission to be appointed under the proposed Convention should be distinctly specified. and he accordingly suggests that the reservations mentioned in the first paragraph of the Finding of Facts should be inserted in the Recital.

o 79871.-36.

95.-8/94.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PIELEC.O.885

14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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