s should be forthwith devised. British experts
questioned some of his conclusions, but admitted the need of restriction
upon pelagic sealing.

The McKinley Administration besought Great Britain for a suspension of
seal-killing during 1897. After a delay of four months the Foreign
Office replied that it was too late to stop the sealers that year. In a
rather undiplomatic note, dated May 10, 1897, Secretary Sherman charged
dilatory and evasive conduct upon this question. The retort was that the
American Government was seeking to embarrass British subjects in
pursuing lawful vocations.

Moved by Canada, Great Britain recanted her offer to join the United
States, Russia, and Japan in a complete system of sealing regulations.
The three countries last named thereupon agreed with each other to
suspend pelagic sealing so long as expert opinion declared it necessary
to the continued existence of the seals. The Canadians declined to
consider suspension save on the condition that the owners of sealing
vessels should receive compensation. In December, the same year (1897),
our Government ordered confiscated and destroyed all sealskins brought
to our ports not accompanied with invoices signed by the United States
Consul at the place of exportation, certifying that they were not taken
at sea. This cut off the Canadians' best market and so far diminished
their activity; but pelagic sealing still continued, under the
inefficient Paris regulations, and the herd went on diminishing.

That these Canadian controversies left so little sting, but were
followed by closer and closer rapprochement between the United States
and Great Britain, was fortunate in view of the failure of the
Anglo-American Arbitration Treaty. This had been negotiated by Mr.
Cleveland's able Secretary of State, Hon. Richard Olney, and represented
the best ethical thought of both nations. President McKinley endorsed
it, but it fell short of a two-thirds Senatorial vote.

On June 16, 1897, a treaty was signed annexing the Hawaiian Republic to
the United States. The Government of Hawaii speedily ratified this, but
it encountered in the United States Senate such buffets that after a
year it was withdrawn, and a resolution to the same end introduced in
both Houses. A majority in each chamber would annex, while the treaty
method would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate. The resolution
provided for the assumption by the United States of the Hawaiian debt up
to $4,000