THIRTY-EIGHTH DAY, JUNE 14™, 1893. 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — Mr. President, I proceed at once to the 

 examination of tlie evidence on tlie various subjects which I enumerated 

 at the close of the sitting yesterday afternoon. The task of the British 

 Counsel has not been rendered lighter by the action taken by my learned 

 friends on the other side. We always had a hope that there might 

 have been a certain amount of approximation and fair discussion 

 between us as to what I may call the hmits of Regulations; but you 

 will have observed, from the paper read some days ago by General 

 Foster, to which paper allusion was made by the Attorney General yes- 

 terday and which called forth a remark from Mr. Phelps, I have to 

 justify the whole of my Regulations. It is not a question of degree; 

 they are objected to root and branch by the United States, who contend 

 that an exclusive right is to be given to them of capturing these seals, 

 and that, within the whole of this area, no Regulations are at all com- 

 patible with the duty imposed on this Tribunal by the Treaty. 



Sir, you will not have forgotten the scheme of the Treaty is that, for 

 the guidance of the Tribunal, there shall be presented to them a joint 

 and several, Report of the Commissioners, both of the United States 

 and Great Britain; and in dealing with the various heads to which I 

 have to direct your attention, I must, of course, in every case see that 

 I bring before you, inasmuch as it has not been already brought before 

 you, the contents of the various Reports upon each of these points, sup- 

 plemented of course, by the evidence which the two countries have laid 

 before the Tribunal. The first question I propose to address myself to 

 is, what is the zone of thick seal-life as I shall contend upon the evi- 

 dence taken fairly as a whole and disregarding exceptional statements? 

 The thick seal-life is to be found within a comparatively speaking, nar- 

 row beltround the Pribilof Islands; outside a narrow belt of somewhere 

 about 20 miles, seal-life is sparse, seals are scattered, and attacks made 

 on seal life would not imj^air or injure what I may call the main seal 

 herd. 



In considering all this evidence, Mr. President, you will have to 

 remember that it has not been subjected to cross-examination. I shall 

 have to point that observation later on when I deal with specific state- 

 ments ui)on which cross examination was attempted and not permitted. 



It is very important in reference to the statements on which reliance 

 is placed on one side and the other. The Tribunal will be good enough 

 to bear that in mind and further as to these observations I ask partic- 

 ular attention. It is important to see if the statements made are ex 

 post facto that is to say after the discussion has arisen or if they are 

 statements made before the actual contention between the parties had 

 been developed. In that view may I ask the Tribunal kindly to take 

 the British Commissioners' Report and to refer to certain paragraphs 

 beginning at paragraph 209. I do not pause to rei)eat, but only to 

 endorse with a word my learned friend the Attorney General's argu- 

 ment with regard to the attack made on the British Commissioners. I 

 may have to refer to it later on. It has been a matter of astonishment 



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