ORAL ARGUMENT OF CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON, Q. C. 295 



That is a quotation from what the Commissioners vsay. 



What is the avowed ground (the word "is" being in italics) aside from the 

 assumed right of individuals to carry on pelagic sealing, upon which these Commis- 

 sioners felt themselves not warranted in yielding to the decisive facts thus stated by 

 them, and declaring that a perfect protection would be given to the seals by simply 

 prohibiting capture at seal It is, to shortly sum it up, that the power thus pos- 

 sessed by the occupants of the breeding places has been abused in the past, and 

 probably will be in the future, by an excessive slaughter of young males. 



In other words, these gentlemen ask, as if it was something they were 

 unable to comprehend, the Commissioners having found it was easy for 

 those wlio own the Islands to kill the seals under efficient protection, 

 what was there to prevent them from simply saying that the rights of 

 all others, if they had any, should be taken from them, and all tlie rights 

 over the seals given entirely to those who own the Islands? They did 

 not take the same view of rights as my learned friends, that the owner- 

 ship of these Islands gave them a right to slaughter the whole race of 

 seals and take away all rights from others. That is a matter which my 

 learned friends, with the one sided view which they take of their case, 

 seem unable to comprehend. Then they go on to say: 



We are reluctant to make any reference to motives; but, where opinions are, as in 

 this case, made evidence, the question of good faith is necessarily relevant. Why is 

 it that these CommiMsiouers have chosen to disregard the plain dictates of reason and 

 natural laws which they were bound to accept, and to recommend some cheap devices 

 in their place, when they so clearly perceived those dictates? We are not y)ermitted 

 to think that this was in conscious violation of duty, if any other explanation is pos- 

 sible. The only apology we can find comes from the fact, clearly apparent upon 

 nearly every page of their report, that the predominating interest which they con- 

 ceived themselves bound to regard was not the preservation of the seals, but the 

 protection of the Canadian sealers. 



And then they proceed somewhat further with what I need hardly 

 continue to read, Kow if the Tribunal will turn to page 251 of the 

 same argument it speaks of the "wild assertion" of the commissioners 

 about some other matters, and say that nothing can justify it. Let us 

 see w^hat that "wild assertion" is. 



It would seem from the testimony in the Case quite certain that the pregnant 

 females would lose their young if they were on the point of delivery when reaching 

 the islands, and if driven off by man, or by accident, they certainly would be exposed 

 to great danger while looking for another home, even assuming this exercise of sound 

 judgment in extremis to be probable. Such difficulties do not, however, trouble the 

 Commissioners, wlio are satisfied that if they were to be debarred from reaching the 

 islands now chielly resorted to for breeding purposes, they would speedily seek out 

 other places upon which to give birth to tlieir young. (Report of British Commis- 

 sioners, Sec. 28,) 



This is based upon "experience recorded elsewhere." We fail to find any such 

 recorded experience which would justify so wild an assertion. 



I venture to ask any Member of this Tribunal, has any one the 

 slightest doubt that if you were to line the Pribilof Islands witli men 

 and prevent the seals landing there, the seals would not as soon as 

 possible And another place to haul out upon? Does anybody believe 

 that if the Pribilof Islands were submerged to-morrow the seal race 

 would disappear? Our Commissioners did not believe it; and yet it is 

 asked what can justify their wild assertion that the seals would find 

 some other place? 



Tlien, if you will turn to my learned friend, Mr. Carter's, oral argu- 

 ment, he says, after speaking of what he conceives to be the course 

 they took, at page 421 : 



That is a pretty decisive fact. In what category does it put them? Why they 

 are partisans, just right off, just as much as my friends on the other side are here. 

 They are defending from the beginning to the end the interests of pelagic sealing. 



