The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, October 25, 1387. ALASKAN FISHERIES DISPUTE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 58, 25 October 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, October 25, 1387. ALASKAN FISHERIES DISPUTE.

Be .inat and fear tint; I* l sit the ends thou sim'st at be thy country's. Tny God s, and truth’s.

The recent seizure of a British vessel in the Behrings S :.t, and its subsequem release at the order of the Americat Government, has renewed a very troublesome question. The arrest ol British sealers in this sea is no new thing, for last year, besides other arrests, three schooners were taker, with everything on board, though the illegally of this course was subse quently recognised by the release ol the vessels. But if the boats were no actually confiscated, they were in effect the order for release not being acted o> till months afterwards, and z.oco sealskins being taken from the vesse's Some of the captains and mites were reduced to such an extremity by the deprivation of their only source of livelihood that when they were liberated on bail they requested to be taken into custody again, where at latest accounts they still remained.

The United States Government have leased the sole right of killing seals upon the St. Paul and St. George islands and in the adjacent waters to a company called the Alas' a Commercial Company, and in order to secur. the fullest privileges of the grant, the American authorities try to keep unlicensed vessels not only from within the three-mile radius, but off the Behrings Sea altogether.

This is undoubtedly an infringement of international rights. When Alaska belonged to Russia the latter maintained a similar pretension, but het claim was strenuously resisted both by the United States and the British Go. vernments, and the assumed right was afterwards renounced by a Convention in 1825.

In 1867 Alaska was ceded to the United States, and it is not tenable that they should claim a right which they denied to Russia. They are doubtless much harassed by poachers, which, it is only right, should be severelydealt with. American vessels are n< t treated any more leniently in this respect than are strangers, but it has been a cause of much dispute whether mos i of the seizures have not been arbitrarily made on the high sea. This seems to have been admitted in the case of the last vessel seized, and it is hoped thjs may be the end of the trouble.