No. 387.] JAPAN. No. 23. Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Bayard. UNITED STATES LEGATION, Tokio, Japan, September 28, 1887. (Received October 24.) SIR: I have the honor to inform the Department of State that I have submitted to the Japanese minister for foreign affairs the substance of your instruction No. 153, in relation to taking steps for the better protection of the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea by international co-operation, waiving all exceptional measures and exceptional marine jurisdiction that might be properly claimed for that end by the United States. In invoking the early and earnest consideration of the propositions of your instruction for the reasons given, and which are alike of practical commercial interest to Japan as well as to the other friendly powers des ignated as having been invited to enter into a similar arrangement with our Government, I have requested Count Ito to name at his pleasure some time in the future when we may discuss informally the reasons for and the terms and conditions of such arrangement for the protection of the seal-fur fisheries in Behring Sea as will safe guard that large marine interest against the lawless and indiscriminate slaughter of this animal, contributing so much to the wealth and general welfare of mankind. Due report will be made to the Department of State as the negotiations progress, which I hope and expect will be concluded favorably to all concerned. I have, etc., RICHARD B. HUBBARD. No. 24. Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Bayard. [Telegram.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Tokio, September 29, 1887. (Received September 29.) Mr. Hubbard acknowledges the receipt of Mr. Bayard's instruction No. 153, of August 19, 1887, and requests, at the instance of the Japanese Government, copies of the Treasury regulations and contracts concerning the seal fisheries, and also a more definite statement as to the nature of the protection which it is desired to extend to those fisheries. No. 388.] No. 25. Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Bayard. [Extract.] UNITED STATES LEGATION, Tokio, Japan, September 29, 1887. (Received October 24.) SIR Referring to your instruction No. 153 I have already had the honor to inform the Department of State that I would seek a personal official conference with the minister for foreign affairs on the subject of the international protection of the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea. The Japanese Government is anxious to enter into an arrangement or convention with the United States Government, invoking similar arrangement or convention with our Government for the protection of the fur-seal fisheries in the waters of their northern islands. I expressly called attention to the waiver for this purpose, as expressed in your instruction No. 153, and in my dispatch No. 387, of any legal rights under former conventions; that my Government now desired to invite this co-operative protection of friendly powers of their fur-seal fisheries from wanton destruction without reference to said former conventions. Nevertheless, the Japanese Government requested as an especial favor that I would cable the Department of State, in order to save time, for certain documents mentioned in the subjoined cablegram, and for such specifications of said desired arrangement or convention as will be satisfactory and meet the wishes of my Government in that regard, and which might be reciprocally invoked for the protection of their own fur-seal fisheries. I have, etc., No. 26. RICHARD B. HUBBARD. No. 156.] Mr. Bayard to Mr. Hubbard. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: The Department is glad to infer from your telegram of the 29th instant that the Government of Japan has favorably received the proposition of the United States to negotiate for the protection of the seal fisheries in Behring Sea. A memorandum on the subject is now being prepared in reference to my suggestions and will be transmitted as soon as it is completed. I am, etc., No. 27. T. F. BAYARD. No. 393.] Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Bayard. UNITED STATES LEGATION, Tokio, Japan, October 10, 1887. (Received November 2.) SIR: I have the honor herewith to inclose for the information of the Department of State, copies, respectively, of my note to Count Ito, and his reply thereto, relating to the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea. I am requested to call the attention of my Government respectfully and especially to the proposed reciprocal protection of the sea-otter, and to enlarge the protected zone so as to embrace the known habitat of that animal. I took occasion to say unofficially to Count Ito that I had no hesitation in giving him the hopeful assurance that my Government would co-operate with his excellency's Government in the proposal to include sea-otter as well as fur seal in any reasonable arrangement which would prevent unregulated and indiscriminate slaughter of this valuable ani mal in the waters of Behring Sea as well as on the coasts of Japan and in their conterminous waters. I shall have the honor to await, in deference to Count Ito's expressed request, your instructions in response to the respectful proposition of the Japanese Government before entering upon any formal negotiations on this subject. On receipt of this dispatch by the Department of State, I have the honor to suggest that if the reply to my cablegram of the 29th ultimo has been mailed to this legation by the Department, that in that end a brief telegram signify. ing your willingness to include the sea-otter in the said negotiations would advance the negotiations and gratify this Government as well, who manifests a deep interest in securing an early arrangement by our respective governments for the better protection of the fur-seal and seaotter fisheries in American and Japanese waters. I have, etc., [Inclosure 1 in No. 393.] RICHARD B. HUBBARD. Mr. Hubbard to Count Ito Hirobumi. UNITED STATES LEGATION, SIR: I have the honor herewith to forward to your excellency, and to beg your early and favorable consideration of, a copy of an instruction which I have had the honor to receive from the Department of State of my Government. The general proposition respectfully submitted in this instruction by my Government, as well as the obvious and convincing reasons there set forth in favor of its adoption by the friendly powers named therein, will, I am sure, receive from your excellency's Government the same earnest consideration as they have received from the United States. As already indicated unofficially to the foreign office, I shall, in furtherance of the wishes and instructions of my Government, be gratified and obliged if your excellency will formally appoint any future time and place when and where I may have the honor to confer and discuss with your excellency, or any other representative of His Imperial Majesty's Government, the subject of an arrangement or special convention between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan having reference to the better protection of the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea. I avail, etc., RICHARD B. HUBBARD. No. 8584]. ¡Inclosure 2 in No. 393.-Translation.] DEPARTMENT FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellenty's note of the 6th instant, in which you are pleased to inclose the copy of a communication from the honorable the Secretary of State in reference to the seal fisheries in Behring Sea, and, in pursuance of instructions contained in that dispatch, invite His Imperial Majesty's Government to enter into an arrangement with the Government of the United States having for its object the protection of fur seals in Behring Sea from indiscriminate destruction and consequent extermination. The unregulated and indiscriminate slaughter of the sea-otter as well as the fur 'seal on the coasts of Japan and in their conterminous waters is a subject which has for many years engaged the serious attention of the Imperial Government. The experience of His Imperial Majesty's Government justifies the belief that the end sought to be obtained can be best secured by means of a co-operative international action, and they therefore cordially approve of the suggestion of the honorable the Secretary of State. His Imperial Majesty's Government would be willing to enter into an arrangement for the purpose indicated, but they would wish, for the reasons assigned by Mr. Bayard in favor of the protection of the fur seal in Behring Sea, to extend the principle of protection to the sea-otter as well as the fur seal, and to enlarge the protected zone so as to embrace the known habitat of that animal. I beg that you will bring this proposal to the attention of the Government of the United States, and I would suggest that this be done in advance of any negotiations on the subject. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatches Nos. 388 and 393, dated, respectively, September 29 and October 10, and in reply to express the satisfaction of this Department at the favorable response of the Japanese Government to negotiate for the protection of the seal fisheries in Behring Sea. The Department hopes to be able, at an early day, to instruct you further on the subject. At present, owing doubtless to the shortness of the time, few replies have been received from foreign governments to the circular invitation of the United States in this regard. And it is thought desirable to await for a time further responses, which might affect the course of the negotiations. Tokio, Japan, June 23, 1888. (Received July 16.) SIR Respectfully referring to the correspondence between the Department of State and this legation, looking to the conclusion of a convention between Japan and the United States and some other powers for the protection of the fur-seal fisheries in Behring Sea, and the protection of the sea otter, as subsequently suggested by Japan, I have the honor to inform the Department that instruction No. 171, of November 21, 1887, which has heretofore been acknowledged, is the last that has been received by me from the Department on this subject. I desire to inform the Department that the Japanese foreign office has in a friendly spirit of inquiry asked if I could furnish information as to when my Government would be ready (as Japan had been ready for some time past) to resume the consideration of the proposed convention. I have, in response to this inquiry, forwarded to the foreign office a copy of your said instruction No. 171, dated November 21, 1887, with the accompanying note, dated June 20, transmitting the same. The Japanese minister for foreign affairs has been recently advised by the Russian minister to Japan that the United States Government and those of Russia and Great Britain had discussed, at London, the matter of a similar convention for the protection of the fur-seal fisheries and sea-otter in Behring Sea. He also communicated the fact that the Government at St. Petersburg desired to conclude with Japan a convention for the mutual protection of the seal and otter within their own seas and contiguous waters. This fact has been the immediate cause of the inquiry submitted to me, to which the inclosure herewith is in response. I have, etc., [Inclosure in No. 483.] RICHARD B. HUBBARD. No. 284.1 Mr. Hubbard to Count Okuma. UNITED STATES LEGATION, SIR: Referring to my note to his exellency Count Ito, dated October 6, 1887, and his reply thereto dated November 8, 1887, concerning a proposed arrangement which the United States invited Japan to enter into with the United States and certain other powers, for the protection of the fur seals in Behring Sea from indiscriminate destruction and consequent extermination, I have now the honor to inclose an instruction* from my Government in response to my dispatch to the honorable the Secretary of State, informing him of Japan's willingness to enter such an arrangement. It will be observed by your excellency that my Government is awaiting the replies of some other foreign governments to the invitation of the United States to enter into such a convention. I have not communicated with your excellency's department since my note of the 6th of October, on account of awaiting further instructions from my Government in the premises, to which the instruction herewith inclosed especially refers. The substance of the inclosed instruction has not been heretofore communicated to your excellency's Government, hoping that I might, as indicated, ere now have been furnished with final instructions to conclude a convention between our respective governments, embracing all the points of discussion on which a common and friendly concurrence and understanding had been reached and of which my Government was advised in my dispatches to which the inclosed instruction is in response. I avail myself, etc., RICHARD B. HUBBARD. No. 30. No. 491.] Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Bayard. UNITED STATES LEGATION, Tokio, Japan, July 13, 1888. (Received August 8.) SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of a note from the Japanese minister for foreign affairs dated July 7, in which I am requested to instruct the United States consuls in Japan not to ship Japanese subjects on board American vessels engaged or about to engage in otter or seal hunting. The reasons for such a request are set forth in the minister's note. In compliance with Count Okuma's request, I have instructed the United States consul-general at Kanagawa, and through him the other consular representatives of the United States in Japan, to refrain from shipping any Japanese subjects on any American otter or seal hunting vessels. I have the honor to inclose a copy of my communication to the United States consul-general on the subject, and hope that my action in the premises will meet the approval of the Department of State. In order that the Department may more fully understand the imme *See supra, No. 28. |