People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1895 — BEHRING SEA CASE. [ARTICLE]

BEHRING SEA CASE.

Great Britain Refuses to Re-Enact the Regulations of Last Year. Washington, May 15.—An ugly crisis has been reached in the negotiations between the United States and Great Britain looking to the adoption of uniform regulations for tlfe government of the seal fishery this season. The British government positively refuses to reenact the regulation of last year, which prohibits the carrying of firearms by sealing vessels through the zone north of the thirty-fifth parallel during the closed season. The United States officials look upon this as disastrous to the seal fisheries and the United States cutters have gone out under the old instructions to seize all vessels carrying arms not under seal. These must be modified speedily by orders sent through the Alaska Commercial company’s steamer, which leaves Spn Francisco in a day or two, or else there may be another big claim for damages on account of illegal seizures filed by the British government. It is held by the state department that the effect of the British action is to practically nullify all measures of protection for the seals that were conferred by the Paris arbitration, and it would ont be surprising if this course is persisted in if it resulted in a declaration by the United States of the abrogation of the treaty.