1896] The Paris Tribunal 



seizure of any wild creature anywhere in the open 

 sea had always been assumed as a universal right. 

 In the unquestionable absence of applicable inter- 

 national statute, it lay within the province of the 

 Tribunal to make new law. This, in fact, it did by 

 its limitation of pelagic sealing, though in such an 

 ineffective way that the action was valueless except 

 as a legal precedent. 



Stripped of verbiage the vital claim of the United States was Contention 

 based on the following correct assertions: (a) The Fur Seal f & 

 has a high economic world value; (b) the nature and habits 

 of the animal being what they are, only selective killing of males 

 on land can be safely allowed; (c) adequate protection had 

 previously long existed, so that an established and valuable 

 industry had grown up; (d) killing at sea was leading to ex- 

 termination, already far advanced; (e) common interest, there- 

 fore, demanded the abolition of pelagic sealing, and the recog- 

 nition that ownership of the herds accompanies ownership of 

 their homes. 



Our case was complicated and vitiated from the start, how- 

 ever, by further claims of a different nature; namely, (a) the 

 right to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the herd wherever 

 found and (b) over the sea in which it roamed and fed, together 

 with (c) the right to use force in support of such jurisdiction. 

 As to the last the United States Government had already 

 seized several British vessels found operating in Bering Sea. 



The essential factor in the American contention was the right 

 to protect the Fur Seal, as all other claims were useless with- 

 out it. The assertion of sovereignty over Bering Sea, of little 

 importance in itself but pretentious in form, was used by 

 Blaine to awaken popular interest at home, even though it 

 aroused opposition in Europe. 



The Award of the Tribunal, in brief, was: 



1. Denial that Bering Sea is mare clausum. 



2. Denial that the Fur Seal herds are property of any na- 

 tion when in the open sea. 



C 549 3 



