ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 5 



preceded this Arbitration, and in the proceedings wliich were institiited 

 at the instance of the Government of the United States in its own 

 municipal Courts. 



I will only, iii passing, indicate generally some of those leading 

 changes, I do not refer to them merely for the sake of pointing out a 

 certain inconsistency of conduct. It will be found that „, , ^ ^ 



, , . , 1 1 • XI . • -4. 1 • 1 Chanpes of front 



there is a real reason underlying that inconsistency, which in United states 

 I shall seek to develop and to bring to the notice of this position. 

 Tribunal m the course of tlie discussion of the case. For the moment, I 

 content myself with a general indication of some of the more remarka- 

 ble changes of front. 



The first is this. Although the first four questions of Article VI deal 

 with the assertion of a claim derived from Russia, — a claim of exclusive 

 jurisdiction and exclusive rights which it is asserted Russia exercised, 

 and which it is further asserted passed unimpaired to the United States, — 

 we are now told tluit this derivative title under Russia is a matter of 

 practically no moment. Why? Because we are told that what Kussia 

 did needs not to be justified upon the basis of an exclusive jurisdiction, 

 but amounted simply to such executive protective acts as any Power, 

 apart altogether from exclusive jurisdiction, may rightfully exercise in 

 defence of its propei ty and interests. I shall, of course, have something 

 to say about that in a moment: I Avill merely in passing call attention 

 to the fact that it is impossible to explain the frame of those four ques- 

 tions consistently with any such idea of a mere inherent right of protec- 

 tion of property or of interest: and for tins simple reason, that each of 

 those questions is a question of exclusive jurisdiction in a defined area — 

 namely in Eehriiig Sea; and that if the acts of Russia had been acts 

 of defence of proi>erty — a right which is inseparable from the ])osses- 

 sion of property — then that right would not be confined to a defined 

 area, namely the eastern part of Behring Sea, but would be a right 

 which would exist and follow the property wherever the })roperty itself 

 existed. That is the first change of front, a remarkable and signifi- 

 cant change, — all the more remarkable when the Tiibunal bears in 

 mind the Statutes of the United vStates, which 1 shall have to examine 

 presently; the mode in which the aid of those Statutes was invoked 

 by the agents and representatives of the Executive of the United 

 726 States; and lastly, the judgments of the Courts upon those 

 municipal Statutes, by virtue of which judgments, and by virtue 

 of which judgments alone, they have secured the confiscation of and 

 so aflected the property in the vessels of British subjects. 



The* next change of front is not less remarkable. The third of those 

 Questions in Article VI, the Arbitrators will remember, is the question, 

 "Was the body of water, now known as Behring Sea, included in the 

 phrase 'Pacific Ocean' as used in the Treaty of 1825?" The impor- 

 tance of the question cannot be exaggerated; because, if it were true 

 that, under the operation of the Treaty of 1825, Russia, the predecessor 

 in title of the United States in the Alaskan territory, had recognised 

 the general right of fishing in the Xorth Pacific Ocean including the 

 Behring Sea, of course it would go a long way to negative the existence 

 of any riglit to limit the right of fishing to citizens of the United States 

 or to those authorised by the Executive of the United States. But 

 to-day we are told by my friend Mr. Carter, in his elaborate argument, 

 that this also is a comparatively unim]iortant question. The question 

 Avhether, by those Treaties of 1824 and 1825, Russia recognised the 

 right of all the world to fish in Behring Sea has become comparatively 

 unimportant! although the responsible Minister of the United States, 



