54 



THE TnmD QUESTION IN ARTICLE I OF THE TREATY SEEMS TO HAVE 



BEEN AVOIDED. 



One of tlie tliree questions submit ted to arbitration in Article I is so 

 dependent for its decision upon the question of property in fur-seals 

 that it should be considered in connection witli it. It is concerning 

 ^'the rights of the citizens and subjects of either country as regards 

 tlie taking of fur-seal in or resorting to said waters." The founda- 

 tion of such a right could be none other than a right of property in 

 the seals when captured or hilled in nonterritorial waters— a right 

 acquired by the capture of the seal, dead or alive. The final analysis 

 of this question is whether a right of property can attach to a living 

 seal that is found swimming in the ocean. This question is nowhere 

 presented in the treaty or allnded to as a question to be submitted to 

 the Arbitrators, except in the first article. It is the postulate stated 

 by Great Britain in these contentions, around which every fact and 

 every principle of law asserted by Great Britain is grouped. 



If British subjects have the right of taking fur-seals in, or habitually 

 resorting to, Bering Sea, it makes little difCerence what the rights of 

 the United States may be, for they would amount to nothing prac- 

 tically, and, in theory, such a right would destroy all the grounds 

 on which the United States could rest a chiim to the right of protect- 

 ing the seals outside the ordinary 3-mile limit. 



This question is submitted for decision in such broad form as to 

 include "the rights of the citizens or subjects of either country, as 

 regards the taking of fur-seals in, or habitiuilly resorting to said 

 waters." 



' The statutes of the United States, following the unqualified asser- 

 tions of Kussia while she was owner of these islaiuls, assert the owner- 

 ship of the United States in the fur-seals found in the Bering Sea, and 

 base upon that ownership a governmental industry of great value to 

 the revenues. They punish with severity any person who destroys 

 this property or interferes with the agents or lessees of the United 

 States in its management, and they provide for the lease, to their own 

 citizens under careful regulations, of the privilege of taking seals. 



Great Britain has not assumed and could not assume such a relation 

 as that to the fur-seals in, or resorting to, Bering Sea, because it can 

 not claim them raiione soli. It sets up no claim of ownership in the 

 fur-seals, but denies that ownership in them is possible until the ani- 

 mals have been captured or killed. 



