OKAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 289 



to mankind, from deterioration or destruction? And, if so. (3) What months or 

 parts of mouths should be included in such season, and over what waters it should 

 extend? 



On June the 22nd, 1891, which was after the modus vivendiof that 

 year had been signed, and the instructions to the British 'Commis- 

 sioner were " for the purpose of enquiring into the conditions of seal- 

 life and tlie precautions necessary for preventing the destruction of the 

 fur-seal species in Behring Sea and other parts of the North Pacific 

 Ocean." And the President of the United States, in appointing the 

 Commissioners on our side, instructed them "to proceed to the Pribilof 

 Islands and make investigation of the facts relative to seal life, with 

 a view to ascertaining what permanent measures are necessary for the 

 preservation of the fur-seal in Behriug Sea and the North Pacific 

 Ocean." There are the instructions issued on both sides to their respec- 

 tive Commissioners, and that appears again througli this correspond- 

 ence to an extent which would be only wearisome to reiterate. 



At page 315 of the 1st United States Appendix, Sir Julian Paunce- 

 fote writes a letter to Mr. Wharton of June the 11th 1801, and he says: 



Nevertheless, in view of the urgency of the case, his Lordship is disposed to 

 authorize me to sign the Agreement in the precise terms formulated in your note of 

 the 9th June, provided the questiou of a .)oiut Commission be not left in doubt, and 

 that your Government will give an assurance in some form that they will concur in 

 a reference to a Joint Commission to ascertain what permanent measures are neces- 

 sary for the preservation of the fur-seal species in the Northern Pacific Ocean. 



Mr. Wharton, in reply to tliat letter, recognises the fact, and he says : 



I am directed by the President to say that the Government of the United States, 

 recognizing the fact that full and ade([uate measures !br the protection of seal life 

 sliould embrace the whole of Behring's Sea and portiims of the North Pacific Ocean, 

 will have no hesitancy in agreeing, in connection with lier Majesty's Government. 



So that you have the specific agreement that these measures were to 

 embrace parts of the North Pacific Ocean, and instructions were given to 

 the Commissioners on both sides how far into the North Pacific Ocean 

 it was necessary to go; and in the next place you have the definite lan- 

 guage of the Treaty, free from ambiguity, which gives the jurisdiction to 

 the Tribunal to go to that extent; and then, you have it conceded by 

 ray learned friends that if you do not go into the North Pacific Ocean 

 you do not answer the purpose that the Government had in view, and 

 cannot fulfil the only duty with which the Tribunal is charged. 



Now what have we to say generally, about these regulations, before 

 coming to compare the two drafts. It is that they cannot be temporary. 

 The theory of the Treaty, and the necessity of the case, is that they 

 should be permanent; that they cannot be confined to Behriug Sea, but 

 they must extend as far as is necessary; that they cannot be made con- 

 ditional upon the management upon the island, for the reason that that 

 authority is not entrusted to the Tribunal. 



Now we come to the proposition made on the British side as a partial 

 result of the British Commission, though they do not go nearly as far 

 i'.s that Commission juoijoses, and what is it that they pro]iosel Really, 

 what is the final outcome. We have reached the point where the 

 Tribunal is engaged in finding out what is necessary for the preserva- 

 tion of the seal. They pro]»osc some little, paltry regulations which do 

 not need the judgment of this Tribunal, because the British Govern- 

 ment is at liberty t(» adopt them if it pleases, within its own jurisdic- 

 tion, and this Tribunal could not prevent it. They say let us have 

 the vessels licensed. That is an affair of their own. We do not care 



B S. PT XV 19 



