The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 49, October 14, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls by Various
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page 2 of 28 (07%)
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conference.
That England should say she would not join because of Russia and Japan, was a great surprise to the officials in Washington. When Mr. Foster was in London last July, he told the British officials that he had just returned from St. Petersburg, having obtained the consent of the Czar to send a representative to the meeting. England consenting to join the conference soon after this, it was thought that the consent of the two other countries had influenced her to come to a like decision. In the same month of July, our ambassador in England wrote to Lord Salisbury, told him of the arrangements that had been made, and asked whether Great Britain would surely be represented. The Prime Minister kept this note unanswered until September, and then said he could not possibly take part in any discussion to which Japan and Russia were also to be admitted. Every one wondered what this refusal could mean, and it caused a very bad impression, as it came right after the publication by the Foreign Office of a book in which the letters and despatches which had passed between the two countries in the seal dispute had been printed. This book contained some very unfriendly remarks about the United States. Among other things it was said that we ought not to be making such a fuss about the kind of sealing that is now being carried on, because in 1832 we practised the same methods ourselves in the South Atlantic Ocean. |
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