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



sider tliat a date may be fixed for tlie commencement of the sailing of 

 sealing vessels which wonld prevent their overtaking the gravid females 

 going to the breeding islands. 



The President. — You consider they have all passed into the Behring 

 Sea before the first of May? 



Sir Charles Russell. — ISTo, 1 think not. Indeed, this is a very con- 

 venient opportunity for emphasising my i)osition in this regard. I have 

 pointed out that these comnussioners were dealing with the question of 

 regulations, both on land and at sea everywhere for the fur-seal preser- 

 vation. They were arguing u])on the general assumi)tion that regula- 

 tions may and ought to be made affecting both land and sea. 



The President. — Both Behring Sea and the Pacific. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Certainly both Behring Sea, the Pacific, 

 and the islands. 



The President. — Yes, and the islands. 



Sir Charles Russell. — They were not, as I have more than once 

 said, writing in view of any construction of the Treaty, even if they 

 had theTreat}^, in fact, before them. They were dealing with the ques- 

 tion generally; andassuming that the whole thing wasuuderone Power's 

 control, what would be the proper adjustment of regulations to apply 

 to the whole; but that brings me back to the question I referred to 

 yesterday, and as to which I wish to state distinctly what the position 

 of the British Government is, as to which Senator Morgan yesterday 

 rather challenged me. 



The British (joverument are today as ready as they always have been 

 to deal with the whole of this question inside and outside Behring Sea, 

 the Pribilof Islands and the rest, but they decline to be parties so far 

 as they can refuse to be i^arties to an arrangement by which the whole 

 thing is to be preserved to the benefit of the United States, without 

 any concession or guarantee from the United States; and, therefore, it 

 was that I .submitted to you, admitting I conceded it to be a point most 

 arguable and difficult, as a matter for your consideration whether your 

 jurisdiction extended outside Behring Sea on the Treaty. 



On the assum])tion that your jurisdiction does extend outside Behring 

 Sea I shall have to make some suggestion on that view presently. That 

 is our position and I think it is a perfectly just and perfectly fair posi- 

 tion. If there is to be no concession on the part of the United States 

 and the whole of the Regulations and claim of the United States were 

 simply to be directed to the preservation of the fur-seal for their benefit 

 and for their benefit alone, I do not know what we have got to arbitrate 

 about. It would have been a thousand times better to have admitted 

 all these questions of alleged rights as raised in Article VI. Let them 

 go back to the Ukase of 1799 or the Ukase of 1821 against which they 

 struggled so severely. This new scheme of proposals is but an asser- 

 tion again of the old exploded claim of territorial jiirisdiction or claim 

 of property, and except that it is jmt under circumstances very greatly 

 changed it is the old claim put if possibly in a more utterly untenable 

 form. 



For the present I content myself with re- affirming our position sub- 

 mitting respectfully for your judgment and consideration the construc- 

 tion of the treaty which of course, you must construe for yourselves 

 whether we raise the points or not, because within the ambit of that Treaty 

 and that alone is your authority to make regulations at all. Having 

 decided that point as you shall see fit to decide it, if you come to the con- 

 clusion your authority extends beyond, you will consider what would be 

 fair and just and equitable Regulations in that wider area. Returning, 



