114 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



to Lord Eosobery most courteously to the effect tlmt tlie acceptance of 

 the invitation is extremely pleasant, though he must point out to him 

 that it had not been given. 



I cannot discuss the subject, Mr. I'Ambassadeur, without calling your attention 

 in the first instance to this fact, viz., that the object of my note of the (12th) of 

 February was to warn the British Government of certain legitimato measures of 

 defence necessitated for the moment by exceptional circumstances, and not to lay 

 down the basis of a regular modus viiendi, that is to say, of a bi-lateral arrange- 

 ment, which might be prolonged until the question was dolinitively settled. 



The only idea was to provide a minimum of protective measures, intended to pre- 

 vent the disa])2)ftarance of the subject of the dispute, even before the negotiations 

 with regard to it were commenced. In view of the near approach of the fishing- 

 season 



If it had been intended to lay down basis of a modiis vivendi of this kind, the 

 Imperial Government would not have failed to claim that a restriction of territorial 

 rights, that is to say, the engagement to limit the number of seals to be killed on 

 land, should in equity carry with it the corollarj- of a complete suspension of pelagic 

 sealing in the open sea. 



He informs Lord Eosebery that, if the purpose of his communication 

 had been to enter into negotiations, he should have demanded very 

 different terms. The object of it was to inform the British Government 

 of the minimum of i)rotective measures which they would acceijt. 



They would have especially regarded it as indispensable to make their reservations 

 as regards the definitive settlement of the seal question, in order to retain their entire 

 freedom of view as to the measures to be agreed upon for the preservation of the. 

 seal species, whether by the proliibition or regulation of sealing in the open sea, or 

 by the extension of special rights of jjrotection of that species beyond the various 

 distances commonly designated as the limits of territorial waters. 



Yet, alter making these observations, I am authorized, Mr. I'Ambassadeur, to 

 inform your Excellency that the Imperial Government, being anxious to meet half 

 way any conciliatory offer on the part of the British (liovenmient, are ready to accept 

 the proposal made in Lord Kosebery's despatch, with the exception of some moditi- 

 cations on the first point. 



That is, the limit of killing on the Islands; and a British agent is to 

 be allowed, to visit the Islands to see that that is complied with. 



The arrangement agreed upon would have no retrospective force, because the dif- 

 ferent cases of seizures effected last year have been already examined by a special 

 Commission on the basis of the general principles of international law. 



Finally, in regard to the first point of the proposal contained in Lord Rosebery"s 

 despatch, 



that is that any vessel seized should not be carried into a Eussian Port, 

 but should be handed, over to a English cruiser, 



The Imperial Government are of opinion that it would be qiiite impossible to 

 apply it as it stands, at any rate under the circumstances existing for the present 

 fishing season, especially as to the engagement to hand over to the Kiu/Ush cruisers or 

 to the nearest British nulhorili/ the English vessels caught trespassing outside terri- 

 torial waters within the forbidden zones of 30 and 10 miles. 



It may be that means may hereafter be found by common consent to remedy the 

 practical difficulties in the way of such an undertaking; !>ut for the moment, there 

 is no doubt that it would comjiletely paralyze the action of the cruizers of tlie 

 Imperial navy, and render illusory the supervision which they should exercise along 

 the coast and round the islands. 



In practice, any Russian cruizer which had captured an English vessel would have 

 to choose between the alternatives of searching for an English cruizer, which might 

 take a long time, considering the extent of the coast, or else of undertaking a voyage 

 of 3,000 miles to conduct the captured vessel to the nearest port, that of Victoria in 

 Columbia. 



The Russian cruizers would thus l)e exclusively occupied in looking for the 

 English cruizers, or in making voyages to Port Victoria and back throughout the 

 fishing season; and the "co-operation" of the cruizers of two nations could, there- 

 fore, only be a nominal one. 



Under these circuuistances, and without insisting lor the moment on another 

 essential point — that of the absolute absence ol' reciprocity in the British proposal, 

 as there are not, nor can there be, any vessels under the Russian Hag engaged in 

 sealing — the Imperial ('Overnnient consider that for tlie current year it would be 



