mankind and should be permitted to discharge As trustee, right their trust without hindrance. and duty to protect. must be prohib ited. In respect to the second question heretofore Pelagic sealing stated, it will be claimed by the United States, that the extermination of this seal herd can only be prevented by the practical prohibition of pelagic sealing in all the waters to which it resorts. Argument de The United States Government defers argu- ferred. ment in support of the propositions above announced until a later stage of these proceedings. In respect to the jurisdiction conferred by the treaty, it conceives it to be within the prov- or prescribe reguince of this high Tribunal to sanction by its de-lations. cision Tribunal may sanction conduct of United States, any course of executive conduct in respect to the subject in dispute, which either nation would, in the judgment of this Tribunal, be deemed justified in adopting, under the circumstances of the case; or to prescribe for the high contracting parties any agreement or regulations in respect to it, which in equity, justice, humanity, and enlightened policy the case appears to require. In conclusion the United States invoke the Prayer for decisjudgment of this high Tribunal to the effect: ion. Russia exercised First. That prior and up to the time of the exclusive right in cession of Alaska to the United States Russia Bering Sea. exclusive right in Bering Sea. Russia exercised asserted and exercised an exclusive right to the seal fisheries in the waters of Bering Sea, and also asserted and exercised throughout that sea the right to prevent by the employment, when necessary, of reasonable force of reasonable force any invasion of Great Britain assented. Bering Sea not "Pacific Ocean." such exclusive right. That Great Britain, not having at any time resisted or objected to such assertions of exclusive right, or to such exercise of power, is to be deemed as having recognized and assented to the same. Rights of Russia passed to United States. That the body of water now known as Bering Sea was not included in the phrase "Pacific Ocean," as used in the treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, and that after said treaty, and down to the time of the cession to the United States, Russia continued to assert the same exclusive rights and to exercise the same exclusive power and authority as above mentioned. That all the rights of Russia in respect to the seal fisheries in Bering Sea east of the water boundary established by the treaty of March 30, 1867, between that nation and the United States, and all the power and authority possessed and asserted by Russia to protect said rights passed unimpaired to the United States under the treaty last mentioned. tect herd. That the United States have such a property, United States have property in and interest in the Alaskan seal herd as to justify and right to prothe employment by that nation, upon the high seas, of such means as are reasonably necessary to prevent the destruction of such herd, and to secure the possession and benefit of the same to the United States; and that all the acts and proceedings of the United States done and had for the purpose of protecting such property and interest were justifiable and stand justified; and that compensation should, in pursuance of Article Damages. V of the Convention of April 18, 1892, be made to the United States by Great Britain by the payment by the latter of the aggregate sum herein before stated as the amount of the losses of the United States, or such other sum as may be deemed by this high Tribunal to be just; or, Second. That should it be considered that the and United States Or Great Britain United States have not the full property or prop-should concur in erty interest asserted by them, it be then declared and decreed to be the international duty of Great Britain to concur with the United States in the adoption and enforcement against the citizens of either nation of such regulations, to be designed and prescribed by this high Tribunal, as will effectually prohibit and prevent the capture, anywhere upon the high seas, of any seals belonging to the said herd. |