86 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 



Mr. Justice Harlan. — I do not, from that paper of Kussia, find a 

 proposal made to limit the uumber of seals. 



Sir EiciiAKD Webster. — It is stated by Lord Eosebery. 



Mr. Justice Haiilan. — It is not material. 



Sir Richard Webster. — I do not think it is. I was reading it per- 

 haps a little too shortly; but I think it will be found, on looking- at the 

 papers, that it did; but it makes no ditterence. They agreed to it. 

 Perhaps it would be more important for us if the suggestion came first 

 from Great Britain. 



Now I will ask the Tribunal to turn to page 22 where they will find 

 the proposal of Russia dated the Gth of April which led up to the 

 arrangement to which 1 shall be able to refer very shortly. Mr. (Jhich- 

 kine, writing on the 6tli of April, says: 



lu reply to my note of the 12tli (24tli) February, your Excellency was good enough 

 to send me a copy of I^ord Rosebcry's despatch of the 17th ]\Iarch in which the 

 British Government proposes to establish at once a modus vivendi on the following 

 basis: 



1. The British Government would forbid their subjects to fish for seals within 

 zones of 30 and 10 miles, and would ofl'cr the co-operation of their cruizers to carry 

 out that measure. The Imperial Govcruuicnt ^\ ould engage to hand over to tlie 

 English cruizers or to the nearest British antliority the English vessels seized out- 

 side territorial waters in the above mentioned zones, Avhilst tlie English cruizers 

 would, in reciprocity, hand over the Russian vessels seized under the same circum- 

 stances. 



I need not point out the reasonableness of that provision, and con- 

 trast it with what is demanded by the United States in this matter. 



• 2. The Imperial Government would limit to a specified number the amount of seals 

 to be killed on tlie islands. 



3. The luiperial Government would authorize an agent of the British Government 

 to proceed to the islands iu order to confer witli the local authorities as to the work- 

 ing and result of the arrangement. 



4. It would be understood that this arrangement should in no way affect the 

 facilities hitherto afforded in Russian ports to English vessels for refuge, repairs, or 

 supplies. 



5. The arrangement would not have any retrospective effect, more especially as 

 regards the English vessels seized last year. 



I cannot discuss the subject, M. I'Ambassadeur, without calling your attention in 

 the first instance to this fact, viz., that the object of my note of the 12th (24th) of 

 February was to warn the British Government of certain legitimate measures of 

 defence necessitated for the moment by exceptional circumstances, and not to lay 

 down the basis of a regular niodus vwendi, that is to say, of a bi-lateral ari"augement, 

 which might be prolonged until the question was definitely settled. 



The only idea was to provide a minimum of protective measures intended to pre- 

 vent the disappearance of the subject of the dispute, even before the negotiations 

 with regard to it were commenced. 



In view of the near approach of the fishing season, which has now already begun, 

 the Imperial Government considered at the date of my note that there would not be 

 sufficient time to discuss and to establish a modus vivendi, which would necessarily 

 afiect not only questions of interest, but also questions of principle. 



If it had been intended to lay down bases of a modus vloendi of this kind, the 

 Imperial Government would not have failed to claim that a restriction of territorial 

 rights, that is to say, the engagement to limit the number of seals to be killed on 

 land, should in equity carry with it the corollary of a complete suspension of pelagic 

 sealing in the open sea. They would have especially regarded it as indispensable to 

 make their rosej'vations as regards the definitive settlement of the seal question, in 

 order to retain their entire freedom of view as to the measures to be agreed upon for 

 the preservation of the seal species, whether by the prohibition or re,i;ulation of 

 sealing in the open sea, or by the extension of special rights of protection of that 

 species beyond the various distances commonly designated as the limits of territorial 

 waters. 



Yet, after making these observations, I am authorized, M. I'Ambassadeur, to inform 

 your I^xcellency that the Imperial Government lieing anxious to meet halfway any 

 conciliatory ofier on the part of the British Government, are ready to accept the 

 proposal made in Lord Rosebery's despatch, with the excoxition of some modifications 

 on the first point. 



