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



Now, the Court will remember that tlieorigjinal contention of the United 

 States accorded with our own, lam not at all snggestingthatmy learned 

 friends are not fully entitled to the argument that they did not know, 

 or Mr. Blaine, when he wrote, did not know, as much as we know now. 

 T am myself going to use that argument in favour of some of my con- 

 tentions; it is equally open to my learned friends. I am entitled, how- 

 ever, to note in passing the original contention in the celebrated letter 

 from Mr. Blaine to Sir Julian Pauncefote, the actual passage being at 

 page 284 of the first volume of the United States Appendix, — the date 

 was the 17th of December, 1890, — in which you will remember the Presi- 

 dent asked the Government: 



To agree to the distance of 20 marine leagues — within which no ship shall hoA^er 

 around the islands of St. Paul and St. George, from the 15th of May to the 15th of 

 Octoher of each year. This will prove an effective mode of preserving the seal lish- 

 eries for the use of the civilized world. 



Sir, in my submission, having regard to the evidence that we now 

 have a distance of 60 miles, or 20 marine leagues, is very excessive; but 

 it is to be noticed that that distance was in connection with the dates 

 there mentioned, from the 30th of May to the 15th of September, and 

 would have left Behring Sea outside that 60 miles open during the whole 

 year; and in connection with what I am going to i^ress upon this Tri- 

 bunal (fori ask to be allowed here again to make the observation), I 

 shall submit to the Tribunal that I am considering this question of 

 Eegulations fairly from the point of view of assisting the Tribunal and 

 not trying to argue it too much from the British point of view, and I 

 say it is important to stop pelagic sealing in Behring Sea while the 

 stream of gravid females is going from Unimak pass up to the islands. 

 I mention that because it is quite clear, from that point of view, that 

 Mr. Blaine had not sufficient knowledge. I agree that that scheme of 

 his would have allowed pelagic sealing in Behring Sea in the months of 

 May and June north of the Aleutian Islands, and up to within 60 miles 

 of the Pribilof Islands; and I admit at once, so far as Counsel may 

 make an admission, looking at it impartially, that is a period of time 

 when in Behring Sea the most destruction would be done to gravid 

 females. I speak of Behring Sea as compared with outside Behring 

 Sea, because, from about the middle of May up till the 15th of June, 

 the female seals in large crowds, clustered together, are streaming up 

 from the Unimak pass and other passes close by to the Pribilof Islands. 



Therefore, I call attention to this, and I think the Tribunal will think 

 I am not unfairly admitting it, that the zone proposed by Mr. Blaine, 

 which he thought to be efl'ective, did overlook or was insufficient from 

 an important point of view, and that the rights of pelagic sealers ought 

 to be restricted, so as to prevent any pelagic sealing in Behring Sea 

 when the herd of females close together are, to use an expression I used 

 just now, streaming up in close proximity towards the Pribilof Islands. 

 I may make this observation once and for all, and submit this to the Tri- 

 bunal, in the Pacific Ocean, and even round the coasts of the Gulf of 

 Alaska, the stream has a comparatively speaking wide area, speaking 

 of the stream of seals — that is to say it is dispersed from 3, 4, 5, 6, or 

 even 20 miles from the shore; that is the evidence, and I believe even 

 further. But when the seals get to pass through the Aleutian Islands 

 they might become pressed, be closer together, because the passage 

 through which they go is narrow, and people thought, even at those 

 places, nets put round might catch and destroy a very large proportion 

 of the female seals. So a point to be considered by this Tribunal, and 

 considered I admit most carefully, is to see that during the time that 



