PART II. 



THE MERITS OF THE VARIOUS QUESTIONS SUBMITTED TO THE TRI- 

 BUNAL FOR DETERMINATION. 



1. 



CJEIVERAIi STATEMENT OF THE FACTS OUT OF ^VHICn THE 

 PRESENT CONTKOVEKSV BETWEEiV THE TWO IVATBONS ABOSE, 

 AIVW THE BSSSTOKV OF TSIE NEGOTIATIONS KESUL.TlNCi IN THE 



TISEATIT OF FES5KUABV -29, 1S92. 



Before entering upon the examination of tlie important questions 

 submitted for determination, it will be Avell to recall the general course 

 of the negotiations that preceded the making of the treaty under which 

 we are proceeding, and the principal facts out of which the present 

 controversy between the two governments originated. Some of these 

 facts have already been stated by me when considering, at a former 

 session of this Tribunal, the question of its competency to make regu- 

 lations applicable to the North Pacific Ocean, and which also, in terms, 

 or by their necessary operation, would put an end to j)elagic sealing in 

 the waters traversed by the Pribilof seals. But it is well, even at the 

 risk of repetition, to restate them in this connection. 



The controversy had its origin in certain seizures of vessels, alleged 

 to belong to, or to be in the possession or uuder the control of, British 

 subjects who were engaged, at the time, in the Avaters of Bering Sea 

 outside of the ordinary limits of territorial jurisdiction, in hunting and 

 taking fur-seals which had their breeding grounds on the islands ol 

 St. Paul and St. George, two of the four islands in Bering Sea con- 

 stituting the Pribilof group. 



The seizures referred to were made in 1886, 1887, and 1889 by public 

 armed vessels acting under instructions from the Executive Depart- 

 ment of the Government of the United States. 



The Pribilof Islands are situated in Bering Sea, latitude 57° north, 



longitude 170° west from Greenwich, about 300 miles from Cape ISewen- 



ham, on the mainland of Alaska Territory, and about 200 miles north 



ol the Aleutian Islands, the latter islands extending several hundred 



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