104 



m the Nortli Pacific Ocean, as it was to obtain their consent to regu- 

 lations that would preserve and protect fur-seals in the waters in which 

 they are found anywhere in the world, if they are generally adherred to. 



No nation except Great Britain has found itself interested in the 

 huntiug of the seal herd that resorts to Bering Sea. The x>eople of 

 other nations have not carried on pelagic sealing in that herd, or in 

 the waters of the North Pacific or Bering Sea. If the regulations 

 that we adopt are founded upon or modified by the peculiar interests 

 of Canada, or the United States (as is proposed in the British case), 

 the other powers will find that they are in no sense internatioiuil, but 

 are entirely local; that they adox)t no general principle of action for 

 the i^rotection and preservation of fur-seals, but are only an expedient 

 devised to get rid of a particular controversy between the United 

 States and one of the provinces of Great Britain. We could not ask 

 other powers to adhere to regulations based on grounds so narrow and 

 selfish. It would be in effect only a request that they wonld agree 

 not to interfere with this herd of seals while they are being divided, 

 according to an award of this Tribunal which apportions them between 

 the United States and Canadian sealers. 



The regulations presented by Sir John Thompson appear to be based 

 upon the recent modus vivcndi agreed u^^on between Russia and Great 

 Britain, to which the attention of the Tribunal has been called. Russia 

 appears to have accepted that arrangement as a mere temporary check 

 upon the aggressions of the pelagic sealer, and has accompanied it 

 with reservations and protestations that show her extreme unwilling- 

 ness to adopt it as the final definition of her rights. 



If the award of this Tribunal should thus conform to the plan 

 adopted in the Anglo-Russian modus vivendi, it will either force Russia 

 into terms of final agreement with Great Britain that she would not 

 otherwise ado])t, or it will show a wide distinction between Russia and 

 the United States in treating with Great Britain about a subject of 

 the same character, and in reference to the same body of waters. 

 Russia could not finally adhere to the regulations proposed in the pro- 

 gramme presented l)y Sir John Thomi^son, without agreeing to all that 

 Great Britain is demanding of her, against much of which she is 

 firndy protesting. 



Before stating the form of regulations to which I wonld prefer 

 to give the support of my voice in this Tribunal, I will state some 

 conclutdons of fact that I have drawn from the evidence as to the 



