206 



have declared, that I^ation does not owu tliis lierd of seals when they 

 are in the high seas, beyond jurisdictional limits, and can not, in 

 virtue of any power it possesses, protect them against pelagic sealing; 

 and if, as the same majority hold, British subjects at any time, or by 

 any methods they choose to employ, may, when unrestrained by the 

 laws of their own country, capture and kill these animals, while they 

 are in the open waters of the ocean, and witliout limit as to the num- 

 bers so taken, it is too clear to admit of discussion that the concurrence 

 of Great Britain is necessary in the establishing of regulations appli- 

 cable to its own subjects and to waters outside the jurisdictional lim- 

 its of the respective Governments. So that it must now be decided 

 by the Tribunal, whether concurrent regulations are necessary for "the 

 proper protection and preservation" of the seals while they are in the 

 high seas, beyond territorial waters? If so, over what waters shall 

 such regulations extend, and to what extent must pelagic sealing be 

 restricted ? 



If I have not misapprehended what has been said by Arbitrators 

 during this Conference, we are all agreed that regulations of some kind 

 are necessary; indeed, that an adjournment of this Tribunal without 

 its having prescribed regulations "for the proper protection and preser- 

 vation of the fur seal in, or habitually resorting to, the Bering Sea," 

 would be regarded as a violation of duty upon the ijart of its members. 



It has been suggested thnt the Tribunal is without power, under the 

 treaty, to establish any regulations that will have the effect to suppress 

 altogether the business of taking these animals, in the high seas, by 

 the citizens of the respective countries here represented; and that 

 the duty of this Tribunal — it having been decided that pelagic sealing 

 is not forbidden by the law of nations — is to prescribe regulations 

 that will not injure, to any material extent, much less destroy, the 

 business of pelagic sealing. I had occasion, at one of the early sessions 

 of this Tribunal, to express my views as to its powers or competency, 

 under the treaty, in respect to regulations. My opinion then was, and 

 is now, that the Tribunal has the power, and is under a duty, from 

 the discharge of which it may not shrink, to prescribe whatever regu- 

 lations are necessary for the protection and preservation of these seals 

 when in the high seas. If that end can not be accomplished otherwise 

 than by regulations, which either expressly or by their operation, pro- 

 hibit all pelagic sealing, then it is our duty to prescribe regulations of 

 that character. 



