128 



impossible to answer the thrust that is always made at the United 

 States ill argument, in censure of her condu(;t, that Congress has not 

 enacted laws to prevent citizens of the United States from pelagic hunt- 

 ing in the North Pacific Ocean. • The fact which no one seems to deny, 

 that citizens of the United States took shelter under the British flag 

 and Canadian registry to evade the laws of the United States exclud- 

 ing them from sealing in Bering Sea, seems to have been forgotten. 



That fact alone shows how impotent woukl have been the laws of the 

 United States to protect and preserve the fur-seals agaiuwst the depre- 

 dations of its own peoi)le while sealing under the shelter of the British 

 flag. Canada controls the registry, licensing, and clearance of sealing 

 vessels in her sea-ports, as is shown by her statutes relating to the 

 hair- seal fisheries. A simple regulation would have saved the fur-seals 

 from this exterminating raid tliat the evidence in this case has disclosed. 



But Canadian subjects seem to have a double allegiance and a two- 

 fold protection under their colonial system. The Canadian government 

 ean permit them, without control, to burst into' Bering Sea and prevent 

 the seals from reaching the islands of the United States, and when 

 such 1 aids are followed by arrests they can claim the imj)erial power of 

 Great Britain to protect them. 



Whatever censure, therefore, may be visited upon the United States 

 for her dealings with her own people, it must be admitted that the 

 difiiculties of the situation have been caused by the iDolicy that her 

 neighbor has seen proper to pursue. If such censures had been 

 just they would have been made by Great Britain when negotiations 

 in respect to this treaty were pending. That Government did not 

 venture to allude to the subject. It seems to have been held back as 

 a make weight for the argument and considerations of this case. 



When the United States shall have an opportunity to consider that 

 question in her future discussions of such matters, should that be 

 unhappily necessary, her vindication will be found to be complete. Mr. 

 Bayard, who first pointed out the rights of the United States, which 

 included, in substance, the five points we have just been discussing, 

 and which were advanced subsequently with great earnestness by Mr. 

 Blaine, proposed to leave those matters out of consideration, and to 

 proceed at once to establish the regulation of pelagic hunting by des- 

 ignating an area within which a close season should be enforced. And 

 afterwards, when arrests were made of the Canadian vessels that were 

 killing seals in Bering Sea, Mr. Bayard ordered their release. This 



