ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 5 



SO that you may more easily follow it, whether your jurisdiction, in 

 fact extends beyond what has been called the area of dispute between 

 the United States and Great Britain ; in other words, whether your 

 jurisdiction extends beyond Behring Sea. When I talk of the Behring 

 Sea you will understand that I deal with that part of the Behring Sea 

 east of the boundary line — the portion of that part of Behring Sea, 

 east of the boundary line, being claimed by the United States at one 

 time, and in one branch of their argument, as practically j)art of their 

 territory ceded to them by Eussia. 



Senator Morgan. — You are not speaking of the North Pacific Ocean. 



Sir Charles Kussell. — Well, Sir, I do not at this moment use the 

 phrase "part of the North Pacific," though Behring Sea is part of it. 

 I speak of it as meaning the Behring Sea itself. 



Now I wish before I deal with this question, and having inade my 

 point I do not intend to dwell upon it for reasons which will be appar- 

 ent in a moment. I wish before I argue the point to meet the charge 

 which my learned friend Mr. Carter felt himself warranted in making 

 when dealing with the contention which is raised iu the Counter Case 

 and Argument on the part of Great Britain that the jurisdiction of this 

 Tribunal was in fact limited to Behring Sea. My learned friend said 

 (he did it with his usual courtesy, and he will understand that I am not 

 making it a matter of complaint) that to so argue on the part of Great 

 Britain was to convict Great Britain of insincerity in her desire to pre- 

 serve the fur-seal species. My learned friend went on to say that the 

 facts made it apparent that Regulations were needed outside Behr- 

 ing Sea and south of what has been called the Aleutian chain as much 

 if not more than inside the area of Behring Sea itself. I meet my learned 

 friend's charge of insincerity in the way in which it has been all along 

 met. We have been (as correspondence, which I will not refer to in 

 detail, has made apparent) from the first anxious so soon as the ques- 

 tion of right was settled and out of the way to deal comprehensively 

 with the question of Regulations in relation to the preservation of the 

 fur-seal without limit as to any particular seas or parts of particular 

 seas or islands. We were anxious to gain the co-operation of other 

 great Powers who had an interest in this question. We were anxious 

 that the scheme of Regulations should not be confined to the seas, but 

 should extend to the breeding places of these islands where Regulations 

 were at least as much needed as elsewhere, and given the conjunction 

 of the Powers who were interested, and given authority to a Tribunal 

 to deal comprehensively at sea and on land we have all along been 

 willing, and we are now willing, to give the fullest authority to any 

 Tribunal to deal with any question outside this Treaty. Tliis is no 

 new offer. It is to be trticed in the correspondence of Lord Salisbury 

 when he held the Office of Foreign Minister and from the consistent 

 tone which he evinced there has been no departure by any successor 

 in Office. 



Senator Morgan. — You said to deal with any question outside this 

 Treaty. I suppose you meant outside the territorial limits — outside 

 Behring Sea. 



Sir Charles Russell. — I did. Sir, I meant without any restriction 

 at all there as to sea or land. I therefore meet my learned friends 

 charge or suggestion of insincerity in this way, and indeed I might on 

 my own part — not that I care much for the argument known as the 

 argiimentum ad homineni — retort upon the United States and their 

 advisers, \ do not doubt the personal sincerity of my learned friends 

 at all, but if they were really representing the unselfish views which 



