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Section 3 of the Act intituled " An Act to provide for the Protection of the Salmon Fisheries of Alaska," approved the 2nd March, 1889, provides that:

"Section 3. That section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States is hereby declared to include and apply to all the dominion of the United States in the waters of Behring Sea; and it shall be the duty of the President, at a timely season in each year, to issue his Proclamation and cause the same to be published for one month in at least one newspaper, if any such there be, published at each United States' port of entry on the Pacific Coast, warning all persons against entering said waters for the purpose of violating the provisions of said section; and he shall also cause one or more vessels of the United States to diligently cruise said waters and arrest all persons, and seize all vessels found to be, or to have been, engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States therein."

Articles I, II, and III of a Convention between the United States of America and Great Britain for the renewal of the existing modus vivendi in Behring Sea, concluded the 18th April, 1892, are published for the same purpose:

"ART. I. Her Majesty's Government will prohibit, during the pendency of the arbitration, seal killing in that part of Behring Sea lying eastward of the line of demarcation described in Article I of the Treaty of 1867 between the United States and Russia, and will promptly use its best efforts to insure the observance of this prohibition by British subjects and vessels.

"II. The United States' Government will prohibit seal killing for the same period in the same part of Behring Sea, and on the shores and islands thereof, the property of the United States (in excess of 7,500 to be taken on the islands for the subsistence of the natives), and will promptly use its best efforts to insure the observance of this prohibition by United States' citizens and vessels.

"III. Every vessel or person offending against this prohibition in the said waters of Bebring Sea outside of the ordinary territorial limits of the United States may be seized and detained by the naval or other duly commissioned officers of either of the High Contracting Parties, but they shall be handed over as soon as practicable to the authorities of the nation to which they respectively belong, who alone shall have jurisdiction to try the offence and impose the penalties for the same. The witnesses and proof necessary to

establish the offence shall also be sent with them."

Now, therefore, I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, hereby warn all persons against entering the waters of Behring Sea within the dominion of the United States for the purpose of violating the provisions of said section 1956 of the Revised Statutes, and of the said Articles of said Convention; and

I hereby proclaim that all persons found to be, or to have been engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States, or of the provisions of said Convention, in said waters, will be arrested, proceeded against, and punished as above provided.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 8th day of April, 1893, and of the Independence of the United States the 117th.

By the President:

(L.S.) GROVER CLEVELAND.

W. Q. GRESHAM, Secretary of State.

BRITISH ORDER IN COUNCIL, modifying the Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea, so far as regards Steam Pilot Vessels.-Osborne, August 18, 1892.

At the Court at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, the 18th day of August, 1892.

PRESENT: THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY IN COUNCIL.

WHEREAS by an Order in Council made in pursuance of "The Merchant Shipping Act Amendment Act, 1862,"* and dated the 11th day of August, 1884,† Her Majesty on the joint recommendation of the Admiralty and the Board of Trade, was pleased to direct that on and after the 1st day of September, 1884, the regulations contained in the Schedule thereto should, so far as regards British ships and boats, be substituted for the regulations contained in the First Schedule to an Order in Council made as aforesaid, and dated the 14th day of August, 1879;

And whereas by two Orders in Council made in pursuance of the said Act, and on such joint recommendation as aforesaid, and dated respectively the 30th day of December, 1884, and the 24th day of June, 1885,§ certain modifications and additions were made to the said regulations contained in the Schedule to the said recited Order in Council of the 11th day of August, 1884, as regards British fishing vessels and boats;

And whereas by the said regulations contained in the Schedule to the said Order in Council of the 11th day of August, 1884, it is, amongst other things, provided as follows, namely:

* Vol. LXVI, page 682.
Vol. LXXV, page 588.

[1892-93. LXXXV.]

4 O

+ Vol. LXXV, page 579.
§ Vol. LXXVI, page 479.

"Article 9. A pilot vessel, when engaged on her station on pilotage duty, shall not carry the lights required for other vessels, but shall carry a white light at the masthead, visible all round the horizon, and shall also exhibit a flare-up light or flare-up lights at short intervals, which shall never exceed fifteen minutes.

"A pilot vessel, when not engaged on her station on pilotage duty, shall carry lights similar to those of other ships;"

And whereas the Admiralty and the Board of Trade have, in pursuance of the said recited Act, jointly recommended to Her Majesty that the said regulations contained in the Schedule to the said Order in Council of the 11th day of August, 1884, should be further modified by adding to the said recited Article 9 thereof the provision contained in the Schedule hereto :

Now, therefore, Her Majesty by virtue of the powers vested in her by the said Act, and by and with the advice of her Privy Council, is pleased to direct that from the date of this Order the regulations contained in the Schedule to the said Order in Council of the 11th day of August, 1884, shall be further modified by the addition to the said recited Article 9 thereof the provisions contained in the Schedule hereto.

C. L. PEEL.

SCHEDULE.

A STEAM pilot vessel exclusively employed for the service of pilots licensed or certified by any pilotage authority or the Committee of any pilotage district in the United Kingdom when engaged on her station on pilotage duty, and in British waters and not at anchor, shall, in addition to the lights required for all pilot boats, carry, at a distance of 8 feet below her white masthead light, a red light, visible all round the horizon, and of such a character as to be visible on a dark night, with a clear atmosphere, at a distance of at least two miles, and also the coloured side-lights required to be carried by vessels when under way.

When engaged on her station on pilotage duty and in British waters and st anchor she shall carry, in addition to the light required for all pilot boats, the red light above-mentioned, but not the coloured side-lights.

When not engaged on her station on pilotage duty she shall carry the same lights as other vessels.

MESSAGE of the President of the United States, on the Opening of Congress.--Washington, December 4, 1893.

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE Constitutional duty which requires the President from time to time to give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient, is fittingly entered upon by commending to the Congress a careful examination of the detailed statement and well-supported recommendations contained in the reports of the heads of Departments, who are chiefly charged with the executive work of the Government. In an effort to abridge this communication as much as is consistent with its purpose, I shall supplement a brief reference to the contents of these departmental reports by the mention of such executive business and incidents as are not embraced therein, and by such recommendations as appear to be at this particular time appropriate.

While our foreign relations have not at all times during the past year been entirely free from perplexity, no embarrassing situation remains that will not yield to the spirit of fairness and love of justice, which, joined with consistent firmness, characterize a truly American foreign policy.

My predecessor having accepted the office of Arbitrator of the long-standing missions boundary dispute, tendered to the President by the Argentine Republic and Brazil, it has been my agreeable duty to receive the special envoys commissioned by those States to lay before me evidence and arguments in behalf of their respective Governments.

The outbreak of domestic hostilities in the Republic of Brazil found the United States alert to watch the interests of our citizens in that country, with which we carry on important commerce. Several vessels of our new navy are now, and for some time have been, stationed at Rio de Janeiro. The struggle being between the established government, which controls the machinery of administration, and with which we maintain friendly relations, and certain officers of the navy employing the vessels of their command in an attack upon the national capital and chief seaport, and lacking, as it does, the elements of divided administration, I have failed to see that the insurgents can reasonably claim recognition as belligerents.

Thus far the position of our Government has been that of an attentive but impartial observer of the unfortunate conflict. Emphasizing our fixed policy of impartial neutrality in such a condition of affairs as now exists, I deemed it necessary to disavow, in a

manner not to be misunderstood, the unauthorized action of our late naval commander in those waters in saluting the revolted Brazilian Admiral, being indisposed to countenance an act calculated to give gratuitous sanction to the local insurrection.

The Convention between our Government and Chile, having for its object the settlement and adjustment of the demands of the two countries against each other, has been made effective by the organization of the Claims Commission provided for. The two Governments failing to agree upon the third member of the Commission, the good offices of the President of the Swiss Republic were invoked, as provided in the Treaty, and the selection of the Swiss Representative in this country to complete the organization was gratifying alike to the United States and Chile.

The vexatious question of so-called Legation asylum for offenders against the State and its laws was presented anew in Chile by the unauthorized action of the late United States' Minister in receiving into his official residence two persons who had just failed in at attempt at revolution and against whom criminal charges were pending growing out of a former abortive disturbance. The doctrine of asylum as applied to this case is not sanctioned by the best precedents, and, when allowed, tends to encourage sedition and strife. Under no circumstances can the Representatives of this Government be permitted, under the ill-defined fiction of extraterritoriality, to interrupt the administration of criminal justice in the countries to which they are accredited. A temperate demand having been made by the Chilean Government for the correction of this conduct in the instance mentioned, the Minister was instructed no longer to harbour the offenders.

The legislation of last year, known as the Geary Law, requiring the registration of all Chinese labourers entitled to residence in the United States, and the deportation of all not complying with the provisions of the Act within the time prescribed, met with muca opposition from Chinamen in this country. Acting upon the advice of eminent counsel that the Law was unconstitutional, the great mass of Chinese labourers, pending judicial inquiry as to its validity, in good faith declined to apply for the certificates required by its provisions. A test case upon proceeding by habeas corpus was brought before the Supreme Court, and on the 15th May, 1893, a decision was made by that Tribunal sustaining the Law.

It is believed that under the recent amendment of the Act extending the time for registration, the Chinese labourers thereto entitled, who desire to reside in this country, will now avail themselves of the renewed privilege thus afforded of establishing by lawful procedure their right to remain, and that thereby the necessity of enforced deportation may to a great degree be avoided.

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