The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-08-20
AGAINST UNCLE SAM M
Opinion of an Expert on the Beh-.
ring Sea Decision.
OUR GOVERNMENT THE LOSER,
The Decision, Says This Expert, Gives
the Poachers of Other Nations, Moro
Than Our Own and Great Britain, an
Advantage Over Honest Scaicrs

advantage Over Honest Scalcrs.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19-The recent de-
cision of the Behring sea tribunal is still
under consideration in official and legal
circles, and the opinion that the United
States will profit by it is not altogether
unanimous. A leading LAWYER, who has
for the past twenty-five years made a
study of the subject of seal life in Behring
sen as related to the commercial interests
OF the country, has sent the following opin-
ION to prominent New York stock holder
In the North American Commercial COM
pany, which has the contract for taking
seal on the islands of St. George and St
Paul
TO begin with, the English won and
the United States lost every point of the
contention submitted to the arbitration.
Inc regulations providing for the restric-
tion OF pelagic sealing such as they are.
are all the consolation that is afforded us
for the total defeat of our contention and
the loss of our prestige and standing among
nations by having been found guilty of
presenting an unfounded claim.
PRIOR to this award the Jurisdiction as
serted by the Legislative and executive
branches of this government over Alaskan
waters was not disputed by any power ex-
cept Great Britain. The right of our gov
the fur seal industry was conceded, but by
this award the waters of Alaska are de-
cided to be the high seas and thrown open
TO every pocher in Christendom, except
our own and the English.
Our right of property in the seals
which are born and reared on our soil is
destroyed If the seals are found three
miles from the shore, and they become the
lawful prize of any poacher who sails
under any flag other than TINT of England
or the United States, for it will not be
commended by anybody that these regula-
lions bind any nation which was not
party to the arbitration.
Not only that, any English, Canadian
or American poacher who flies the flag of
any nation other than that of England or
our own can capture seals at all seasons in
every part of Behring sea where he can
find them up TO within three miles of the
rookeries or other coasts to the islands or
the mainland of Alaska.
The prohibition against pelagic sealing
north OF the thirty-ffth parallel and
within the sixty miles circle, only applies
to the English and our own poachers. and
even they will pay rs little attention to it
as they did to the attempted prohibition
OF the modus vivendi. which resulted in
placing greater number of pelagic seal-
ehlils On the market each year than ever
before
1T would be difficult to prove that a
given vessel when seized was within the
lnterdicted circle; the almost constant
fogs and clouded skies of Behring sea pre-
vent an approach TO accuracy ms to n ships
position, and the accused would have the
benefit of the doubt
Firearms are prohibited but shotguns
are permitted. Now, rifles are no good in
sealing and shotguns are used almost ex-
clusively The explanation of this is
simple. Seals shot at long range with
rifles invariably sink before the hunter
can reach them, but shotguns can he used
at such short range that the seals are
easily caught before they have time to
sink. Therefore the prohibition of fire.
arms does not accomplish its purpose if an
exception is made in the case of shotguns.
The result of this arbitration seems to be-
the loss OF everything we claimed and the
surrender of even the right of poaching
to outsiders"