The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-03-24
BEHRINa SEA QUESTION.
Outline of the Case for the United
States to Come Before the Arbi-
traitors.

States to Come Before the Arbi-
traitors.
WASHINGTON, Feb. "a, 1S93.-The
United States claims in the Behring
Sea controversy, as they will be laid
before the Tribunal of Arbitration
when it reassembles in Paris, March
%, are as follows:
That prior and up to the time of
the cession of Alaska to the United
States, Russia asserted and exercised
an exclusive right to the seal fisher
les i'll the waters of Behring Sea, and
also asserted and exercised through
out that sea the right to prevent, by
the employment when necessary of
reasonable force, any invasion of
such exclusive right.
That Great Britain, not having at
any time resisted or objected to such
assertions of exclusive right, or the
exercise of such power, is to be
deemed as having recognized and
assented to the same. That the body
of water now known as Behring Sea
was not included in the phrase
'Pacific Ocean" as used in the treaty
of 1925 between Great Britain and
Russia, and that after said treaty
and down to the time of cession to
the United States Russia continued
! to assert the same exclusive rights
and to exercise the same exclusive
power and authority as above men
toned
RUSsIAs RIGHTS PASSED TO AMERICA.
That all the rights of Russia in
respect to the seal fisheries in the
Behring Sea east of the water boun-
Diary 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.
That the United States have such
property and interest in the Alas
kan seal herd as to justify the en-
ployment by that nation, upon the
high seas, of such means as are rea-
sonably 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 purposes O. protecting such pro-
perty and interest were justifable
and stand justified, and that COM
pensation should be made to the
United States by Great Britain of
the amount of the losses of the
United States, or such other sum as
may be deemed to be just, and that
should it be considered that the
United States have not the full pro-
perty or property interest asserted
by them, it be then decreed to be
the international duty of Great
Britain to concur with the United
States in the adoption and enforce
ment against the citizens of either
nation such regulations as will effec-
tually prohibit and prevent the
capture anywhere upon the high
seas of any seals belonging to said
alaskan seaD herd.
DAMAGES WANTED.
The claim for damages referred to
is of course indefinite in amount, but
includes the losses of both the GOV
ernment of the United States and of
the Alaskan Commercial Company,
owing to the limitation of the catch
necessitated by the diminution of
the herd as the result of Pelagic
sealing. These losses will be calcu-
lated on the basis of the number of
seals above the limit fixed by the
modus vivendi 1900. which the arbi-
traitors find might have been taken
without danger of diminishing the
supply. 1t is contended for the
United States that the number for a
basis of calculation is 10000.
The case and counter case for the
United States comprise several vol
umes of printed matter and two
portfolios of maps of the territory
in dispute and of the seal rookeries.