16 OEAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 



waters for the protection of the fur seals from indiscrimiuate slaughter and conse- 

 quent speedy extermination. 



The laws of the United States in this behalf are contained in the Revised Statutes 

 relating to Alaska, in sections l'J56-1971, and have been in force for upwards of seven- 

 teen years; and prior to tlie seizures of last summer but a single infraction is known 

 to have occurred, and that was promptly punished. 



The question of instructions to (loverumeut vessels in regard to preventing the 

 indiscriminate killing of fur seals is now being considered, and I will inform yon at 

 the earliest day possible what has been decided, so that British and other vessels 

 visiting the waters in question can govern themselves accordingly. 

 I have, etc., 



T. F. Bayard. 



That was followed by a note from the British Minister to Mr. Bayard, 

 on July 8th : 



Sir: With reference to your note of the 12th April, stating that the records of 

 the judicial proceedings in the cases of the British vessels seized in the Behring Sea 

 had been received, I have the honor to inform you that the Marquis of Salisbury has 

 instructed me to request you to be good enough to furnish me with a copy of the 

 same for the information of Her Majesty's Government. 



Mr. Bayard addresses a note on the 11th of July to Sir Lionel Sack- 

 ville West as follows : 



Sir: Complying with the request contained in your note of the 8th instant, con- 

 veyed to me uuder the instructions of your Government, I have the honor to enclose 

 you two printed copies of the judicial proceedings in the United States district court 

 for the District of Alaska in the several cases of libel against the schooners Onward, 

 Carolina and Thornton, for killing fui'-seals in Alaskan waters. 



The furnishing- of these records to the representative of the British 

 Government, containing a full report of the proceedings in the district 

 court of Alaska of course conveyed full information of the grounds 

 upon which vessels of that nation had been seized and carried in and 

 condemned. Upon the receipt of those records by the British minister 

 they were transmitted to Lord Salisbury, and upon examination of 

 them, and upon acquiring full knowledge, as he then did, ofthe grounds 

 upon which the vessels had been seized and condemned, he addressed 

 a note to the British Minister in Washington, of which a copy was to 

 be furnished to the American Government. He considers those grounds 

 and states the attitude of the British Government in relation to them. 

 That letter was written on the lOtb of September, 1887. Something 

 like a year had elapsed, the learned arbitrators will perceive, from the 

 time of the original seizures, which time had been occupied, presum- 

 ably, in the endeavor to obtain this information. The Marquis of Salis- 

 bury writes : 



Foreign Office, Septe^nber 10, 1887. 



Sir: By a dispatch of the 30th October last (No. 214) the late Earl of Iddesleigh 

 instructed you to call the atteutiou of the United States Secretary of State to the 

 circumstances of the seizure in Behring's Sea, by the American cruiser Corwin, of 

 some British Canadian vessels; and his lordship directed you to state to Mr. Secre- 

 tary Bayard that Her Majesty's Government felt sure that if the proceedings which 

 were re]>orted to have taken place in the United States district court were correctly 

 described the United States Government would admit their illegality, and would 

 cause reasonable reparation to be made to the British subjects for the wrongs to 

 which they had been subjected and for the losses which they had sustained. 



By a previous dispartch of the t)th September, you had been desired to ask to be 

 furnished with any i)articulars which the United States Government might possess 

 relative to the seizures in (question ; and on the 10th October you were instructed to 

 enter a i)rotest on behalf of Her ^Majesty's Government, and reserve for consideration 

 hereafter all rights to compensation. 



Nearly four months having elapsed without any definite information being fur- 

 nished by the United States Government as to the grounds of the seizures, my prede- 

 cessor instructed you, on the 8th of June [January?] last, to express to Mr. Bayard 

 the concern of Her Majesty's Government at the delay, aud to urge the immediate 

 attention of the United States Government to the action of the American authoritiea 

 in their treatment of these vessels and of their masters aud crews. 



