HC Deb 28 March 1889 vol 334 cc1029-30
Sir GEORGE BADEN-POWELL (Liverpool, Kirkdale)

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government had any information as to the sale at Port Townshend of the three sealing schooners Grace, Dolphin, and Annie Beck, arrested in 1887 in Behring's Sea, and condemned in the Alaskan Courts for violation of the alleged fishery rights of the territory of Alaska; and, if these sales had taken place, whether any appeal was still possible to the Supreme Court of the United States?

*SIR J. FERGUSSON

Her Majesty's Government are informed that the sale of the three schooners referred to was ordered in the interest of all concerned and with the concurrence of the owners. Her Majesty's Government have not received any information as to whether the sale has actually taken place. The owners have taken no steps for exercising the right of appeal, and have allowed the period limited by law for that purpose to elapse; but the question of international right involved in the seizure of the schooners remains for discussion through the diplomatic channel.