§ MR. GOURLEY (Sunderland)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if it is true, as reported in a Reuter's telegram from Victoria (British Columbia) to the Pall Mall Gazette, that a United States cutter has seized the British sealers Pathfinder and Minnie in the Behring's Sea, and that other Dominion vessels engaged in the seal fisheries have been boarded and searched; and whether Her Majesty's Government intend, prior to the Recess, stating what measures are being adopted, and what diplomatic progress is being made, for the purpose of arranging mutually with the United States and the Dominion a system of regulations under which seizures may in the future be avoided in Alaskan waters over which the Americans claim exclusive jurisdiction?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONHer Majesty's Government are in communication with the Government of the United States upon this subject.