APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 2.91 



asserted by the Government of tlie United States, but that a consid- 

 erable part of it has been already taken and prepared by the British 

 Government, as to the character, extent, and weight of which, however, 

 the Government of the United States is wholly uninformed. 



The propositions of law and of fact upon which the United States will 

 rely in the Arbitration are precisely stated in its Case now in the hands 

 of her Majesty's Government, and need not be recapitulated here. In 

 support of these assertions of fact a large amount of evidence, and all 

 the evidence the Government of the United States will offer, except in 

 rebuttal of that which may be introduced on the other side, has been 

 prepared and is printed in the American Case and its Appendices. 



The facts presented in the American Case are not new. They have 

 been the subject of long discussion and correspondence between the 

 two Governments, and of prolonged consideration by the Commis- 

 sioners of the respective Governments appointed many months before 

 the Treaty was celebrated, and whose functions, set forth in Article IX 

 of that instrument, were to investigate the subject of seal life and the 

 measures necessary for its protection. The opposing claims of the 

 Governments in respect to these facts have been recognized and under- 

 stood as constituting in one view to a large extent, and in another view 

 to the full extent, the controversy for the determination of which the 

 Tribunal of Arbitration has been created. If the Commissioners could 

 have agreed in respect to them, as was hoped and desired on both sides, 

 an Arbitration might not have been necessary. It is therefore impos- 

 sible for the Government of the United States to believe, unless it 

 should be so assured by Her Majesty's Government, that it is the 

 intention of that Government to bring forward no evidence on these 

 points in its own behalf. 



If such evidence is to be offered hereafter in the British Counter-Case, 

 the result of withholding it in the Case already delivered will be as 

 follows: When presented in the Counter-Case, the United States Gov- 

 ernment will have, under the provisions of the Treaty, no opportunity 

 whatever to meet it by rebutting proof of any description, but must 

 proceed immediately to trial without being able to offer any contradic- 

 tory, explanatory, or impeaching evidence. The Counter-Case is the 

 last chance afforded by the Treaty for the introduction of any evidence 

 at all. It is therefore provided that the Counter-Cases shall not be 

 exchanged until thirty days before the final submission of the questions 

 for decision. And thus the whole body of the British evidence, if 

 reserved for the Counter-Case, would only come to the knowledge of 

 the Government of the United States on the eve of the hearing, without 

 the privilege of answering it. 



Especially would such a method of trial prove injurious to the United 

 States Government in respect to that branch of the hearing tliat refers 

 to the Regulations which the Tribunal is authorized to prescribe for the 

 preservation of the seal herd from extinction, if in the course of the 

 consideration of the Case they should reach the conclusion that the 

 United States Government cannot demand such protection as a right. 



A strange misconception seems to exist in the mind of the Agent of 

 Great Britain that a hearing other than that provided in the Treaty is 

 to be afforded for the consideration of the question of Kegulations, 

 should the contingency therefor arise, and that another opportunity 

 than the printed Case is to be granted for the submission of evi- 

 3 dence upon this question. It must be manifest from an examina- 



tion of the Treaty that only one o^jportuuity is afforded each 

 party to submit evidence on this question, and that is to be availed of 



