Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-04-06
HEATED REMARKS
Made by Phelps Before the Ar
bitration Court.
DEBATE GETS RATHER INTERESTING

The Senior American Counsel Intimates
That John Bull Is Not Toting Fair, and
Sir Charles Russell Makes a Spirited r. e.
pIy-British Editorial Comment - An
English Ruffian Attempts to Murder q
Woman - Baffied by a Dog O'Brien
Praises the Irish Constabulary.
PARIS, April 6.-Before the arbitration
court in the Behring sea case yesterday
Phelps, counsel for the United States, con-
tinued his argument to show that the re-
port of the Behring British COM
mission should not be accepted as evil
dence by the board, it had been COM
pleted i'll time to be properly offered by
Great Britain. In support of this conten-
ton counsel quoted the correspondence be-
tween sne English and American foreign
offices, and cited certain passages of the
treaty. Phelps address was interrupted
several times by an exchange of criticisms
between the counsel for the powers "If L
had been guiding the policy of the United
States, said Phelps, when Great Britain
presented the counter case at the last min
ute, L would then and there have refused
TO proceed with the arbitration. Great
Britain's conduct was not only unjust, but
deeply humiliating for the United States.n
Something Phelps Didn't Know.
Sir Richard Webster interposed the re-
mark that Great Britain had announced
n her counter-case the production at a
future date of the Behring sea commission
report.
Phelps, continuing, said that he had not
been aware of this. The whole report, he
iiaid, was Enthusiastically, FOR although
ir1in i'm had baao 10
conformity by the British and the Ameri-
can commissioners the reports had been
neither answered nor commented upon by
the United States. The British report
contained moreover a large amount of
hearsay arguments, conjectures and other
matters quite unsuitable as evidence be-
fore the court.
Surprised at Phelps Warmth.
Sir Charles Russell, in his reply, said that
he had not expected such discussion of the
legal character Of the evidence as that in
troduced by Phelps. He felt quite unpre-
pared for this extraordinary heat on the
part of the opposing counsel. He was ex-
tremely surprised that Great Britain
should be charged with injustice in her
conduct of the proceedings preliminary to
the meeting of the court. There was no
in tention ON the part of Great Britain to
use the report of the Behring sea commits
sion as bearing upon the question of right
before the court.
Broader Than a Matter of Seals.
The counsel for the United States had at
tempted throughout the sittings of the
tribunal to force this matter upon the COM
missioners as if only one question was be-
fore them. There were, however, other
questions than those of right to be settled
The tribunal was dealing with the affairs
of an open sea, in which there were involved
other rights than those of Great Britain
and the United States-namely, the rights
of mankind. In the matter of Great Brit
aims and Americas rights the arbitrators
must act strictly as judges; in the matter
of the rights of mankind they must acquit
themselves as just men.
Russell then justified the production of
the report of the Behring sea commission,
arguing from the terms of the arbitration
treaty between the United States and
Great Britain. If, he said, the sole object
of the report was to assist the tribunal to
gain information as to the regulation of
the seal fisheries and to increase its knowl
edge of the practical matters at issue, the
report then must be admitted to evidence
under the articles governing the procedure
of the court of arbitration. Russell then
read the article in question and the court
adjourned.