DAMAGES CLAIMED BY GREAT BRITAIN. 217 



II. — Damages Claimed by Great Britain. 



The claims submitted on the part of Great Britain are for damages 

 sustained by certain of its subjects by reason of the seizure by the 

 United States of certain vessels alleged to belong to such subjects, 

 and warning certain British vessels engaged in sealing not to enter 

 Bering Sea, and notifying certain other British vessels engaged in the 

 capture of seals in Bering Sea to leave said sea, whereby it is insisted 

 that the owners of such vessels sustained losses and damages, as set 

 forth in the respective claims, these claims being -stated in detail in 

 the u Schedule of particulars" of said claims appended to the British 

 Case. 



The right and authority of the United States to protect the seal 

 herd, which has its home in the Pribilof Islands, and in the exercise of 

 such right to make reprisal of seal-skins wrongfully taken, and to seize, 

 and, if necessary, forfeit the vessels and other property employed in 

 such unlawful and destructive pursuit, is a, necessary incident to the 

 right asserted by the United States to an exclusive property interest 

 in said seals and the industry established at the sealeries. 



We, however, preface what we have to submit on this feature of the 

 case by saying that, if if shall be held by this Tribunal that these 

 seizures and interferences with British vessels were wrong and un- 

 justifiable under the laws and principles applicable thereto, then it 

 would not be becoming in our nation to contest those claims, so far as 

 they are just and within the fair amount of the damages actually sus- 

 tained by British subjects. 



And, even if it shall be decided by this Tribunal that the United 

 States were not justifiable, under the circumstances and the law, in 

 making such seizures and interfering with British subjects in the 

 pursuit and capture of fur-seals in the Bering Sea, still that decision 

 would furnish no ground for claims based on wholly illegal and unten- 

 able grounds, nor for extortionate demands. 



The actual damages sustained by these British subjects, in behalf of 

 whom these claims are presented by the British Government, must, un- 

 doubtedly, be finally settled, according to the terms of the Treaty, by ne- 

 gotiations hereafter to be had ; but, as findings of fact in regard to these 

 claims are asked for, our purpose in this part of the argument is to 

 call attention to some of the elements which go to make up these 

 claims, and show, as we think, conclusively, that such elements can 



