§ MR. GOURLEY (Sunderland)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any reply has yet been received from the Government of the United States, in reply to Lord Salisbury's despatch of the 10th August, 1890, proposing a reference to arbitration of all disputes regarding the seizure of Canadian sealers and the capture of seals outside the three line limit in Alaskan Waters; if so, will he place the reply and further correspondence in the hands of Members; and if he is aware that, owing to the present system of indiscriminate capture of seals away from the neighbourhood of the breeding grounds, the number of seals killed in Alaskan Waters are reported to have fallen from 60,000 in 1889 to 21,000 in 1890?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir J. FERGUSSON, Manchester, N.E.)As was 1020 stated on Friday, a reply has been received. No further communication has yet been made by Her Majesty's Government, and it is not desirable to present the correspondence in an incomplete form. The accounts received by Her Majesty's Government as to the capture of fur seals in Behring's Sea during last season state that the condition of the weather was unfavourable, but that the seals were as plentiful as ever.