ABGUMENT OF SAMUEL J. ELDER. 1503 



they are just as much interior waters as the interior waters of Loch 

 Lomond, and there is no earthly principle, so far as reason is con- 

 cerned, by which any human being could claim that there could be a 

 political coast line back of a political coast line." 



So that what the United States did was adopting the British claim 

 or suggestion of catting off bays at the point at which they were 10 

 miles wide, and arguing the British Case as a hypothetical case, that 

 the true political coast-line would follow those islands, that those 

 islands were not widely separated, that there were always points 

 where the islands were 10 miles or less apart between which points 

 the line could go and ought to go, according to the very rule that 

 Great Britain itself was laying down. So, as a hypothetical argu- 

 ment, or as an argument to meet the British Case, they made the sug- 

 gestion which is contained in the United States Counter-Case before 

 that Tribunal, and which Mr. Warren read to this Tribunal. I wish 

 to present a chart showing just exactly how that works out. 



My attention is called to the passage that Mr. Warren read, in the 

 fourth volume of the same report, at p. 32. This chart that I now 

 hand up to the Tribunal is the same one that Mr. Warren presented, 

 with the exception of the fact that red lines have been drawn upon it 

 to show exactly how the contention of the United States worked out. 

 With the permission of the Tribunal, I shall be glad if Mr. Lansing 

 will point out these details to the Tribunal as I am speaking. Mr. 

 Lansing, I may say, was associate counsel of the United States before 

 that Tribunal, as he is here. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : Do not one of the counsel on the other 

 side also wish to look at this chart ? 



(Thereupon the chart mentioned was laid before the Tribunal and 

 explained by Mr. Lansing, in the presence of the Attorney-General.) 



MR. ELDER: I tMnk I have already mentioned that this is the chart 

 that Mr. Warren produced, with the addition of the red lines which 

 show exactly how the Argument of the United States worked out. 



I will begin reading, and it is the same passage that Mr. Warren 

 read before this Tribunal, beginning on p. 31 of the fourth volume 

 of the minutes of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal. I am going back 

 to the bottom of the preceding page : 



" The political coast line (since all arms of the sea not exceeding 

 six miles, and in some cases more, in width, and all islands are prac- 

 tically treated as portions of the mainland) extends outside the 

 islands and waters between them. In the present instance the politi- 

 cal or legal coast line drawn southward from Cape Spencer would 

 cross to the northwestern shore of Chicagof Island and follow down 

 the western side of that island and of Baranof Island to Cape Om- 

 maney; at this point it would turn northward for a short distance 

 and then cross Chatham Strait to the western shore of Kuiu Island ; " 



92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 10 39 



