the United States in Bering Sea having been limited by decision of the tribunal to the ordinary zone of territorial waters, the seizure of these vessels outside of such territorial waters stood acknowledged as illegal; the United States could therefore no longer evade the liability for damages to their owners. The only question left to decide was the amount of compensation due. The following year (1894), the Secretary of State, Mr. Gresham, signed an agreement with the Canadian authorities to pay to them the lump sum of $425,000 in satisfaction of these claims, but Congress refused to appropriate the money, notwithstanding the fact that the full British claim amounted to about $850,000. During 1895-96 efforts were continued to fix the amount of compensation due satisfactorily to both sides. A treaty between Great Britian and the United States was finally signed in February of the latter year, providing for the appointment of a tribunal to adjudicate upon all these claims. It was to be composed of two members, a Canadian and an American, and, in case of disagreement, a third and neutral member was to be called in as umpire. William L. Putnam of Portland, Maine, Judge of the First Judicial Circuit of the United States, was chosen by the President as commissioner on the part of the United States, and George E. King, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, was likewise selected at Ottawa. The commission met in Victoria, B. C., and later in San Francisco, where testimony was received orally as in open court. No umpire was found necessary, and in December, 1897, the commissioners submitted their joint report to their respective governments, their award being final. The total amount of damages to be paid by the United States to the injured shipowners was placed at $473,151.26. In finding this sum, the commissioners included not only the value of the vessels, their outfits and the skins confiscated, but also the value of the probable catch which would have been made had not the vessels been prevented from continuing their operations throughout the sealing season. Each vessel estimated a prospective catch of 3500 to 5000 skins at a value from $3.50 to $12.50 each. On June 14, 1898, a joint resolution of Congress appropriated the sum of $473,151.26 to pay the award, and two days later, the Assistant Secretary of State, Judge Day, delivered a check upon the Treasury to Sir Julian Pauncefote. Thus closed in amity the question of the Bering Sea claims. Deep regret was felt that the Joint High Commission had been unable to frame a new set of regulations. Under the five years' regulations of the Paris award, the seals were to a certain extent protected, although that protection was admittedly inadequate to preserve the herd; but since the termination of those laws and the failure of the Canadian commission to create new ones, the seals have been left wholly and absolutely without protection while in the sea; the same distressing conditions which existed in Bering Sea before 1894 prevail once more. During the season of 1899 and the season of 1900 pelagic sealing was and is to-day free to all without let or hindrance. If the seals were in danger of extermination, even under the protecting laws of the Paris award, as is generally believed to have been the case, that danger must now be vastly increased since all restrictions have been removed. Now, still further to aggravate the situation, while Canadian vessels are accorded perfect freedom to kill seals in Bering Sea waters, American vessels are barred from all participation in pelagic sealing. The laws to this effect passed by Congress in the winter of 1897 remain in force, and thus, in the final slaughter which is promised, the Canadians will reap all the profits. The herd had become so diminished in numbers in 1898 that the industry for that year was quite unprofitable. The Canadian sealing fleet of 18991 was smaller than that of the previous season, but considering the depletion of the herd, an alarmingly large catch of seals was made. A larger fleet sailed last year,3 and the outlook for the present season is a 1 Twenty-six British vessels. 235,346; 55% females. Catch 35,191, with a large excess of females. discouraging one. Apparently nothing can be done to save the animals from total extinction. Could the industry be properly regulated, there is said to be no doubt that it might flourish for all time. But the seals belong to no one when outside the ordinary limits of marine jurisdiction, and the high seas must be free to all. There is no legal remedy. Possibly a balance will be found, and the yearly diminution of seals will cause a corresponding falling off of hunters, as pelagic operations become less renumerative. But the chances are strongly in favor of a total destruction of the herd within a few years, unless some immediate understanding can be had with Great Britain to check the onslaught. The American company on the Pribyloff Islands took in 1899 and 1900, 16,812 and 22,470 skins respectively, the increase in 1900 indicating a desire to gain as much as possible from a dying industry. In consequence of the unequal laws governing their operations, American pelagic sealing vessels have been driven. from the field. Danger of further conflicts in Bering Sea is lessened, but the unjust conditions which are imposed upon the Americans remain as a sequel to the closing of a diplomatic incident which from first to last has been disastrous to American interests. |