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



this vast area there is to be this power reserved to the Uuited States 

 of searching", seizing, condeumiug any vessel found engaged in sealing 

 or prosecuting a voyage with a view of sealing. I say, looking to the 

 altered condition of things, the increase of poi)ulation, the extension 

 of commerce in the region affected, it is a proposition worse than the 

 proposition propounded by the Eussian Rules of 1799 and 1821 against 

 the assertion of which both the United States and Great Britain pro- 

 tested. But it has other vices than the almost unbridled attempt to 

 assert jurisdiction. What would be the cost of policing that enormous 

 area? It would defeat absolutely its own object. What is the experi- 

 ence of everyone who has had to do with practical legislation or the 

 enforcement of practical legislation in reference to these matters and 

 who has read of these matters? Why, that if you put up excise duties 

 applicable to a i^articular frontier line a high point, smuggling follows 

 as a necessity. Here the United States propose to take a monopoly in 

 the principal fur-seal producing area of the world. 



What does that mean ? It means driving up the price of the fur-seals 

 to the highest point of popular demand: It means getting the highest 

 obtainable price for the fur-seal. What does that mean? It offers the 

 highest inducement that can be offered to persons to violate this area 

 and to violate these Rules and to pursue an enterprise attended with 

 some risk, but, if successfully carried out, with enormous profit; and as 

 I said in the case of a great frontier when there is an article subject to 

 a very high duty, so here, yon would have reckless venturesome per- 

 sons sending comparatively worthless ships to infringe the Regulations 

 and so, defeating the very object at which the scheme is aimed. I 

 observe in the Argument of the United States upon concurrent Regu- 

 lations, at 205, dealing with this matter and dealing a much more limited 

 area, that they say as to : 



What would it cost to maintaiu the naval police required to enforce this scheme 

 of the British Commissioners of a 20 mile zone? 



Will you be good enough to bear that in mind? 



How many armed steamers would he needed to guard effectually against the 

 entrance of a ti'espasser within a prohibited zone, the circumference of which is 

 upwards of 140 miles, in a region of thick and almost perpetual fogs? A million of 

 dollars annually would be a moderate estimate of the expenditure required, and this 

 must be paid by somebody, the Commissioners do not tell us by whom. 



What then, I ask, would be the cost of policing this enormous area? 

 Granted that Great Britain, as no doubt she would, pay proper respect 

 to the Regulations of this Tribunal, and would discharge her proper 

 duty in that regard, what w^ould be the cost of policing this enormous 

 area? Against United States citizens, against the people of Ja])an, it 

 may be against the citizens of Russia, and against the citizens of 

 British Columbia: aye, against the subjects of other Powers who have 

 now no temptation from a remote distance to engage in this enterprise 

 at all — you would have this state of things: seeing that these Regula- 

 tions apply only to bind the nationals of Great Britain and the nationals 

 of the United States you would have a resort to foreign flags — United 

 States vessels sailing and sealing under foreign flags, and British ves- 

 sels sailing and sealing under foreign flags: you would have an abso- 

 lute impossibility of enforcing effectual safeguards, and an occasion at 

 all points of international dfficulty and international complication: and 

 lastly, you would have, as I have already said, the impossibility of 

 expecting the adhesion of foreign Powers which is contemplated by 

 article VII of this Treaty. I have already pointed out in my introduc- 

 tory observations that by their own force and virtue your Regulations 



