Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1897 — ENDS IN A DEADLOCK. [ARTICLE]

ENDS IN A DEADLOCK.

FAILURE IS T“E RESULT OF LAURIER’S MISSION. Canadian Premier Will Not Agree to Join with the United States in Protecting the Seal Herds Insists Upon Taking Up Other Questions. Uncle Sam’s Ultimatum. The United States has delivered an ultimatum to Canada and her British sponsors concerning the seal fisheries, and as a result of it Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s mission to the United States ends in failure. The chances of any kind of an agreement being reached between the United States, Great Britain and Canada regarding the seals and the other disputed questions are so slight that the plenipotentiaries frankly admit a settlement at this time is out of the question* —~ ~~ ■—-———— The situation can be easily explained. ■When Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Sir Louis Davies came to Washington they commenced to discuss reciprocity. The Canadian premier had suggested that the best concession the United. States could make would be the admission on terms of reciprocity of certain Canadian products, and it is very <?lear that when he first came to Washington he was of the impression that the Washington Government would be willing to conclude a settlement with reciprocity forming part of it. Now, however, what amounts practically to an ultimatum, although couched in the politest terms, has been delivered to the Canadians by Gen. Foster, representing this Government, and it has brought about a deadlock from which there appears to be no escape. Sir Wilfrid has been informed that this Government will not consider any other question until an agreement has been reached on Bering Sea. Our Government insists on the absolute stoppage of pelagic sealing for at least one year. If Canada will agree to this the United States will then consider reciprocity and any other question which may be brought up. Until the Bering Sea question is settled nothing else will be discussed. This is the American ultimatum. On her part Canada is equally firm. Sir Wilfrid refuses to settle the seal dispute until he knows what he gets for it. Canada enjoys an impregnable position, and the Canadian authorities know it. They say that if no agreement is reached Canada will simply continue to carry on the sealing business under the terms of the Paris award, and of course the United States can do nothing to prevent it. It has been suggested that if Canada persists in her obstinacy Congress will authorize the annihilation of the seals. Sir Wilfrid hears this news without any display of emotion, and suggests that possibly that course might inflict a greater loss on the United States than Canada. The differences between the two Governments are so radical that a compromise appears impossible. “How can you compromise,” said one of the negotiators, “when there is no middle ground? The American demand is no pelagic sealing, and that is insisted upon as a sine qua non. The Canadian rejoinder is refusal to yield this unless an equivalent is made the price of settlement. In the circumstances an agreement, I regret to say, appears to me to be out of the question.”