350 ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 



Mr. CouDERT. — Deflection, sir, is refreshing; and I always consider 

 it a personal favor when one of the Arbitrators does me the honor to 

 interrupt me. 



The President. — We have favored you to-day in that way. 



Mr. CouDERT. — Not more than you should, and not more than I like. 



Something was said about the fur-seal skin industry, and some ques- 

 tions were asked by the learned Arbitrators upon that subject. It may 

 be interesting to read one single deposition to know what the general 

 nature of this industry is, how it is conducted and wiiat its particular 

 elements may be; and we do now as we did before, take the best infor- 

 mation it is possible to get and go to the highest and best sources. 

 Certainly, whatever comments our friends may make as to our views of 

 the case, they cannot complain that we have not taken from among 

 themselves men of the highest character. Take for instance Sir George 

 Lampson, Baronet, on page 5()5 of the second volume of the Appendix 

 to the Case of the United States. He has been engaged in this busi- 

 ness for a long time. His lather was engaged in the business before 

 him. The house is sixty years old, at least. I read from paragra|)h 4. 

 The whole would be interesting, but it would take too much of the time 

 of the Tiibunal: 



(4) Deponent says that what may be described as the fur-skin bnainess has been 

 built up, that is the product, tlie fur-seal skins, have been made an article of fashion 

 and conmierce, and the sales of such skins largely increased and the methods of 

 dressing and dyeing the same have been jjcrfected almost entirely through the intlu- 

 euce and joint endeavors of the Alaska Commercial Company, the North American 

 Commercial Company, the Russian Seal Skin Company, deponent's own firm, and 

 the tirm of C. W. Martin and Sons, and their predecessors in the city of London. 



That the business at the present time has attained the rank of an imp"ortant 

 industry, in which there is embarked in the city of London a large amount of capi- 

 tal and upon which there is dependent a large number of workmen and employes. 

 The amount of capital irom time to time invested in the business is correctly stated, 

 deponent believes, by Mr. Teichmann, at as much as £1,000,000, and until within a 

 year or two the numbers of persons depending upon the industry for their 8n]>port 

 has likewise been correctly stated by Mr. Teichmann, approximately at 2,000 per- 

 sons, receiving on an average a weekly wage of 30 shillings, and most of them hav- 

 ing families dependent upon their labors for their support. 



During the last two years the diminution and irregularity of the supply of fur 

 and seal skins has caused some decrease in the amount of persons engaged in the 

 industry, but deponent is not able to state exactly to what extent such decrease has 

 taken place. 



A considerable number of the persons employed in this business, as deponent is 

 informed, are not skilled in any other kind of business, and should the fur-seal 

 industry cease, deponent believes that these persons would be obliged to master 

 some other trade or means of livelihood. 



That one of the most important, and deponent feels justified in saying, vital ele- 

 ments in the maintenance and preservation of the business or industry is that the 

 supply of fur-seal skins should be regular and constant so that intending buyers 

 may be able to know beforehand approximately what the prices of their stock in 

 trade are going to be, and that the people engaged in the business may have before- 

 hand a reasonably definite notion of what they shall be able to count upon. 



(5) Deponent has no doubt but that it is necessary in order to maintain the indus- 

 try that steps should be taken to preserve the existence of the seal herd in the North 

 Pacific Ocean and Behring Sea from the fate which has overtaken the herds in the 

 South Seas. Of the steps, if any, which are necessary, in order to accomplish this 

 result, deponent does not feel that he is in a ])osition to state as he has no personal 

 knowledge of the regulations which at the present time exist, but it is obvious to 

 deponent's mind that regulations of some kind imposed by somebotly who has author- 

 ity and power to enforce them are necessary to prevent the rookeries in the North 

 Pacific Ocean from sufieriug the fate of the rookeries in the Southern Atlantic and 

 Pacific seas, where deponent is informed no restrictions were at any time even 

 attempted to be imjiosed. 



This is tlie language of Sir George Lampson, under date of Ai^ril 23, 

 1892; and I may say in that connection, in order to show the enormous 



