ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 61 



legal conditions of the license engage in pelagic sealing at all. That 

 is the flrst point. 



The next point is this, that as regards the licensees themselves, when 

 you proceed to consider the question of Eegulations relating to zone or 

 to close time, one or the other or both, you make each licensee a police 

 or detective upon every other licensee to see that such licensee gets no 

 advantage over him, the particular person, either by entering within a 

 prohibited zone and thus securing an undue advantage to himself or 

 entering a particular Sea before a particular time if a close time is 

 fixed. So that in that way you get, automatically working to a large 

 extent, a system of checks and restraints for the enforcement of such 

 Eegulations as are laid down. That is the first, therefore, that we 

 should respectfully suggest. It has been suggested by the British 

 Commissioners in their most candid Eeport, — I think it is in their 

 Eeport; at all events, I know in the Supplemental Eeport which I am 

 not stopping to refer to, — that, for reasons which will be more apparent 

 when I come to consider the other suggested Eegulations, that nothing 

 but sailing boats should be engaged in pelagic sealing; in other words, 

 that steam vessels should be excluded. 



Now I come to the next question. I deal first with the area in which 

 it is admitted without any conditions at all that the Tribunal has com- 

 l)lete power to make such regulations within the scope and for the object 

 contemi^lated in the Treaty, namely, the eastern part of Behring Sea. 

 First of all, the point that naturally occurs to one is the question of zone 

 round the islands. I shall be able to aftbrd a very good illustration of 

 what has been found to be, or considered to be, reasonable and practi- 

 cable in the case of other islands further to the west in the case of 

 Eussia, but I reserve that for the later period of my argument. 



Now the Biitish Commissioners have suggested a 20 mile zone round 

 the island, and that has been treated with some derision by my learned 

 friends in their arguments; and Mr. Coudert who was most fair and 

 candid in his, with the exception which I am about to mention, addressed 

 an argument to show that seals were not got within 20 miles of the 

 island. I will read the passage in a moment. It is on page 635 of the 

 print. It is only a word, but it is a little disingenuous, I think. He is 

 citing the evidence of Ohlsen of the steam schooner "Anna Beck" and 

 he states through the Victoria Daily Colonist of August 6th, 1887, that 

 anyone who knows anything of sealing is aware that such archarge, that 

 is catching seals in Alaskan waters within three leagues of the shore is 

 ridiculous as we never took fur-seals within 20 miles of shore; and Mr. 

 Coudert proceeds, "This may explain why that 20 mile zone was admitted 

 by the Commissioners". That was not ingenuous on the part of my 

 learned friend. I will not say that it was intentionally disingenuous, 

 but I do not think that he could have quite realized the matter. What 

 that points to, Mr. President, is this, that a 3, mile zone, which is 

 the territorial zone generally admitted, means more than a 3 mile zone. 

 It means that owing to the circumstances of climate principally, the 

 atmosphere in Behring Sea, that vessels will not run the risk of 

 approaching anything near the distance which they might in fact 

 approach the islands, if they were minded so to do; in other words it 

 means not that there are not seals within a 20 mile zone of the island — 

 not that — but that they are afraid to approach, although the zone is only 

 3 miles, within 20 miles of the islands, because of the serious penalty 

 that might fall ui)on them if they found themselves within the territorial 

 waters, and what 1 want to impress upon this Tribunal is that a 20 mile 

 zone means a great deal more than a 20 mile zone. A 20 mile zone 

 means for the prudent navigator, for the prudent sealer, for the prudent 



