217 



from adhering to it as a final settlement of the controversy. At a later 

 stage of the negotiations between the United States and Great Britain, 

 Mr. Blaine expressed the willingness of the United States to accept 

 a settlement upon the basis of a zone of 20 marine leagues, within which 

 no ship should hover around the ishxnds of St. Paul and St. George 

 from the 15th of May to the 15th of October of each year. U. 8. Case, 

 Vol. I, Apj)., 284. 



It is said that the scheme of regulations now proposed by the United 

 States is far more stringent than that proposed by Mr. Bayard and 

 Mr. Blaine, on behalf of the United States. That is true. But it 

 should be remembered that at the time the schemes of Mr. Bayard 

 and Mr. Blaine were proposed, the facts of seal life were not so well 

 known as now, so full have been the recent investigations made by 

 the two Governments, with direct reference to the present controversy, 

 and for the purj)ose of ascertaining what was required in order to 

 preserve this race of animals from extermination. In view of the 

 fuller knowledge all now have on the subject, no one would be so 

 wanting in frankness as to say that this race of useful animals could 

 possibly survive pelagic sealing under the scheme proposed by Mr. 

 Bayard, or under that proposed by Mr. Blaine. While the British 

 Government has contrasted, to the disadvantage of the United States, 

 the scheme now proposed by the latter, with the propositions made 

 by Mr. Bayard and Mr. Blaine, the United States Government con- 

 trasts, to the disadvantage of Great Britain, the scheme now pro- 

 Ijosed by Her Britannic Majesty with that acceded to, provisionally, 

 by Lord Salisbury in 1888. I am of opinion that the determination 

 of the question before us should not depend upon considerations of 

 this kind. It is of no consequence, in the present inquiry, that the 

 respective governments were willing, at one time, to accept regulations 

 different from those now proposed. We must determine the question of 

 regulations in the light of the facts now disclosed. If we prescribe 

 regulations that are inadequate, we will not stand acquitted in our own 

 consciences, or before the world, by the circumstance that that which 

 is done may have been approved by the two Governments or either of 

 them at sometime in the past, when the facts were not fully developed. 



At a former meeting of this Tribunal I presented a scheme of reg- 

 ulations which, in the judgment of my colleague, Senator Morgan, and 

 myself, are adequate for the proper protection and preservation of these 

 seals outside the jurisdictional limits of the respective Governments. 

 That scheme provides that no citizen or subject of either country should 



