ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 247 



tiou. Of course, if it was 90 per cent, 95 per cent, or even 75 per cent, 

 there would be no object in i^utting it in — it would have conveyed to 

 the mind of an ordinary reader that a very small fraction indeed of the 

 seals that Avere shot at were recovered. 

 Then at the end of the 4th paragraph on page 417, you will see this: 



It is evideut that this killiiif; of uonbreeding males could in uo way affect the size 

 or annual product of the breeding rookeries unless the number killed was so great 

 that enough males were not left to mature for breeding j)urposes. There is no 

 evidence that this has ever been the case. 



I do not know now whether Mr. Merriam had seen Goff's Report, the 

 Treasury Agent Lavender's Eeport, Murray's Eeport which is in the 

 year 1890 and 1889, stating that 1889 he, Lavender, could not find 

 enough breeding males uj^on the rookeries that there was none left. 

 It is a most distinct statement. It may be right or wrong — that I sub- 

 mit to the judgment of the Tribunal, but, to say the least, it is rather 

 strong for ikerriam to state if he knew of this report that — there is no 

 evidence of there being any loss by virile males. 



Then further down he says : 



Having been selected by my Government solely as a naturalist, and having inves- 

 tigated the facts and arrived at the above conclusions and recommendations from 

 the standpoint of a naturalist, I desire to know if you agree or dilfer with me in 

 considering these conclusions and recommendations justified and necessitated by 

 the facts in the case. 



I am not at all surprised, Mr. President, that gentlemen replying to 

 that ex parte letter and taking those statements to be facts, you find 

 some of their Ivei)orts more unfavorable to my contention than you 

 would j)erhaps have had, if a more accurate statement of the real con- 

 dition of the evidence had been put before them. But even then there 

 are certain matters which I think should be referred to. I call atten- 

 tion to the letter of Mr. A. Milne-Edwards, who is ''Le directeur du 

 museum d'histoire naturelle", in Paris. At page 419, in the end of the 

 second paragraph he says : 



We know that our migratory birds are, duriug their travels, exposed to a real war 

 of extermination, and an ornithological international commission has already exam- 

 ined, not unprofitably all the questions relating to their preservation. 



Would it not be possible to put fur-seals under the protection of the navy of 

 civilized nations. 



And then on page 419 he says : 



There is, then, every reason to turn to account the very complete information 

 which we possess on the conditions of fur-seal life in order to prevent their annihi- 

 lation, and an international Commission can alone determine the rules, from which 

 the fishermen should not depart. 



Therefore he, with prudence and caution is not prepared to endorse 

 the statement suggested by Mr. Merriam that nothing but the absolute 

 X)rohibition of pelagic sealing is to be the remedy. 



Then I come to the letter of the gentleman who writes from Chris- 

 tiauia, Mr. Collett. I am only of course taking those from which I say 

 evidence in my favour can be obtained. At page 421 he says : 



My own countrymen are killing every year many thousands of seals and cyato- 

 2)lior(c on the ice barrier between Spitzbergen and Greenland, but never females with 

 young; neither are the old ones caught, or and that is the greatest number, the 

 young seals. But there is a close time, accepted by the different nations, just to 

 prohibit the killing of the females with young. 



That is not in favour of complete prohibition of pelagic sealing. 

 I next read an extract from a letter from Dr. G. Hartland of Bremen 

 which will be found on page 422, in which he says: 



I sincerely regret that for practical reasons it cannot be thought of to prohibit 

 fur-seal hunting for a few years entirely, as this would naturally assist numerically 

 the menaced animal. 



