ORAL ARGUMENTS BEFORE THE PERMANENT COURT 

 OF ARBITRATION. 



964 TWENTY-NINTH DAY: MONDAY, JULY 25, 1910. 



ARGUMENT OF THE BIGHT HONOURABLE SIB, WILLIAM SNOW- 

 DEN BOBSON, K. C., HIS MAJESTY'S ATTOBNEY-GENEBAL, ON 

 BEHALF OF GBEAT BBITAIN. 



THE PRESIDENT: Will you please, Mr. Attorney-General, begin 

 your address to the Court? 



THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, SIR WILLIAM ROBSON : Mr. President 

 and gentlemen of the Tribunal, it now becomes my duty to sum up 

 the Case for Great Britain in this long and complicated controversy ; 

 and in respectfully acknowledging the extreme patience and courtesy 

 with which the Tribunal has heard the arguments of counsel on both 

 sides, I think I must ask for some measure of indulgence for myself, 

 in approaching a case which has already been discussed before them 

 at such great length and with such abundant detail. In a summing-up 

 speech which, I suppose, is intended to deal with the case as a whole, 

 finally and comprehensively, it would be impossible altogether to 

 avoid some degree of repetition. I shall try, however, and I think 

 I can promise, to make that repetition as little as possible. I hope 

 it will only arise when I am endeavouring to cast fresh light upon 

 some perhaps familiar feature of the case, or when I am seeking to 

 give to certain essential points some special force and prominence. 



The need for general observations or historic retrospect is, happily, 

 now passed ; and I shall proceed at once to the specific questions. 



The first question, which has occupied so great, but by no means 

 disproportionate a part of your time during this long period, is one 

 of which, really, it would be very difficult for me to exaggerate the 

 importance. It has an importance far beyond that of the interests 

 of the parties immediately concerned. It touches, indeed, the very 

 foundations of international law. It affects the security of national 

 sovereignty, in all those nations, and they are many, both great and 

 small particularly small who have thrown open their territory, or 

 some part of their territory, to their neighbours by binding and 

 durable obligations for some economic purpose or for some other 

 reason of beneficial general intercourse. 



If the United States are right in the contention they are submitting 

 here, the obligations which those nations have incurred, will turn out 

 92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 11 2 1593 



