60 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



As appears from the BritisU Counter-Case, and from the 

 Eeport of the British Commissioners, the main provisions 

 which might be properly embraced by liegulations are the 

 maintenance of a zone of protected waters round the breed- 

 ing-islands, the establishment of a close season, and restric- 

 tion as to tlie date in each year when sealing- vessels sliould 

 enter Behring Sea. 



Having- regard to the fact that each of these proposals, 

 when taken separately, is treated in the United States Case 

 and Counter-Case as being of no value, and that the pro- 

 posals collectively appear to be considered as wholly insuffi- 

 cient, the way in whicii the question has been dealt with by 

 tlje United States in the correspondence prior to the Treaty 

 of Arbitration is worthy of consideration. 



Uj) to the month of December 1890, suggestions of a more 

 or less g'eneral character appear from time to time in the 

 correspondence to the effect that international Kegulatious 

 should be established through the medium of a Conven- 

 tion, to which all nations interested should be parties. 

 These suggestions led to no definite agreement, and were 

 succeeded by a proposal contained in the following passage 

 from a note of Mr. Blaine to Sir Julian Pauncefote, under 

 date the 17th December, 1890 : 



TJnitefl States The President will ask the Govei'iiment of Great Britain to agree to 

 Case, Appeiulix, ^jj^ distance of 20 marine leagnes within which no ship shall hover 

 ^ ■ ■ round thi' islands of St. Paul and 8t. (iieori;e Ironi the 15th May to the 



15th October of each year. This will prove an elective mode of pre- 

 serving- the seal fisheries for the use of the civilized world. 



And in the same despatch there was formulated a 

 68 question, in the following words, on which the Vllth 

 Article of the Treaty of Arbitration was founded : 



United States Sixth. If the determination of the foregoing questions shall leave 

 voLLp 28(f" ''^' ^^'® subject in such position that the concurrence of Great Britain is 

 necessary in ]»rescriijing regulations for the killing of the fur-seal in 

 any part of the waters of Behring Sea, then it shall be further deter- 

 mined : First, how far, if at all, outside the oidinary territorial limits 

 it is necessary that the United States .should exercise an exclusive 

 jurisdi(dion in order to protect the seal for the time living upon the 

 islands of the United States, and feeding therefrom. Second, whether 

 a closed season (during which the killing of seals in the waters of 

 Behring Sea outside the ordinary territorial limits shall be prohibited) 

 is necessary to save the seal-tishiug industry, so valuable and impor- 

 tant to mankind, from deterioration or destruction. And, if so, third, 

 what months or ])arts of months should be included in such season, 

 and over what waters it should extend. 



To this proposal of Mr. Blaine's Lord Salisbury replied 

 in his des])atch of the 21st February, 1891, in which, deal- 

 ing with the sixth question, he observed: 



Ibid., p. 2D-1. The sixth question, which deals with the issues that will arise in 



case the controversy should be decided in favour of Great Britain, 

 would perhaps more fitly form the substance of a separate reference. 

 Her M.ajesty's Government have no objection to refer the general 

 question of a close time to arbitration, or to ascertain by that means 

 how far the enactment of such a provision is necessary for the preser- 

 vation of the seal species; but any such reference ought not to con- 

 tain words ajipearing to attribute special and abnormal rights in the 

 mattcu- to the United States. 



Ibid., p. 319. Finally, in deferen(;e to the objection thus taken by Lord 

 Salisbury, Mr. Wharton, in a letter of the 25th June, 1892, 

 to Sir Julian Pauncefote, proposed what now forms Article 

 Vll of the Treaty. 



