22 



w'lietlier it is found on slioro or swiniiniiig' in tlie sen, tliat is m oontro- 

 versy bet\A'eeii tliese Powers under the provisions of tliis trcnty. 



The controversy submitted to the Arbitrators is in respect to the 

 preservation of an entire body of fur-seals. It is impossible that the 

 Arbitrators could declare in favor of Great Britain, on the case here 

 presented and upon the questions submitted in the treaty, that living 

 seals found at sea are the property of that Goveriuucnt or of its 

 subjects. 



The case submitted by Great Britain is a general and special denial 

 of all proj;)crty hi seals until they are hilled. But the Arbitrators can 

 make an award of the "rights of property" in a herd of living- seals to 

 the United States, because such rights are included in the submission 

 and are claimed in the case of the United States. 



The United States claim the property interest in the seals under 

 this arbitration, not for their justification in destroying them at sea or 

 on the land, but for the sole purpose of protecting them against pelagic 

 hunting, while Great Britain denies all such property rights until the 

 seals are killed, and claims the right to kill them anywhere that a 

 British ship can lawfully go. And the treaty, being framed to settle 

 these claims, on its face admits that, if the seals resort to Bering Sea, 

 that fact x>resents fully and sufficiently the question of the property 

 right on which the claim of the United States to protect and preserve 

 the seals is to be founded, and leaves the question to be settled by the 

 Arbitrators whether there is vested in the United States, as between 

 these parties, a right of property in the seals that are in, or habitually 

 resort to Bering Sea. 



The distance of 150 miles from the eastern coasts of the North Pacific 

 Ocean is the extreme limit, to the westward, of i)elagic hunting in that 

 part of the ocean that bordeis on the North American continent. 



Between February and June, when the seals are approaching Bering 

 Sea, the Japanese and Kussian herds are moving along the coasts of 

 Japan and Kussia, not less than G,OUO miles away from tlie Alaskan 

 herds. If any stray Russian or Japanese seals have found their way 

 across the Pacific Ocean to the American coast and into the Alaskan 

 herd, that fact could not affect any riglit of property that the United 

 States may have in the body of the herd. And when that right of 

 property is asserted for the protection and preservation of the estrays 

 it is sufficient to justify all proper ef(V)rts and force that may be requisite 

 to that end. Even tJiough Russia or Japan may have a higher prox)erty 



