Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-08-19
|BEHRING SEA DECISION.
Declaration of the International
Board of Arbitration.
A COMPROMISE DECREE ADOPTED.
Pelagic Sealing Is to be Permitted Ont
side Of a Protected Zone, but a Close
Season Is Provided for Which will
Govern All SeaIers.

sioe OF q PROTECTED Zone, but a Close
Season Is Provided for Which will
Govern All Sealers.
PARIS, Aug. 1.-the decision of the
Behring sea tribunal has just been handed
down. The first five points of ~article6 are
decided against the United States.
A close season is established, to begin
May l. and to continue u2til July 81 This
shall be observed in the Northern Pacific
ocean and Behring sea. A protected zone
Is established extending sixty miles around
lie seal islands.
Pelagic sealing is allowed outside this
protected zone only after Aug. l. The
present indiscriminate and wholesale
slaughter of seals by the use of firearms is
prohibited.
Notwithstanding the fact that the first
five points of article 6 are decided against
the United States, the American arbitra-
tors express their satisfaction with the
text of the decision.
! After the decision was read Baron de
Courcel, president of the tribunal, thanked
the arbitrators for their intelligent atten-
tion during the hearings. Lord Hammer
and Senator Morgan replied. acknow ledg-
Ing the courtesy and hospitality of Baron
dc Courcel.
The American arbitrators say the regu-
lations decided upoa by the tribunal mean
practically the end of pclagic sealing.
The terms, they say, are better than those
heretofore offered the United States by
Great Britain rs a setIlemelt of the ques-
tions involved.
After a preamble stating the case sub
mitted for decision the full text OF the
award ruus as follows:
We decide and determine as to the five
points mentioned in Article q rs to which
our award is to embrace a distinct decision
upon each of them.
As to the frat of said five points we,
Baron De Coufcel, John NJ. Harlan, Lord
Hanncn, Sir John s. d. Thompson, Mar
qui, Emilio Visconti-V enosta and Gregoro
w. W. Gram, being u majority OF said ar
bitrators, do decide as followsi
BY the ukase of 1921 Russia claimed
jurisdiction in the sea now known as Beh-
ring sei to the extent of 100 Italian miles
from the coasts and islands belongings to
her, but in the course of the negotiations
which led to the conclusion of the treaty
of 1924 with the United States and the
treaty Of lS25 with Great Britain Russia
admitted that her jurisdiction in said sea
should be restricted so as to reach a eanno
shot from shore. 1t appears that from
that time up to the time of the cession of
Alaska to the United Stated Russia never
asserted in fact or exercised any exclusive
jurisdiction in Behring sea or any exclu-
sive rights TO the seal fisheries therein,
beyond the ordinary limit of territorial
waters.
AS to the second of the five points we,
,-Aa 4 r,-.I T-Lo ~ Ill -
Hammer, Sir John b. D.. Thompson, Mar
quis Emilio Nisconti-V eaosta aud Gregero
w. w. Gram, being a majority of said Az
~bitrators, decide and determine that Great
Britain did not rccngnize or concede any
claim upon the part of Russia to exclusive
jurisdiction as 10 the seal fisheries in Behr-
ing sea outside the ordinary territorial
waters.
As "a the third point, as ia So much
thereof rs requires us to decide whether
the body OF water now known as Behring
sea was included in the phrase Pacific
ocean," and used in the treaty of 1925 be-
tween Great Britain and Russia, we
unanimously decide to determine that the
body of water now known as Behring sea
was included in the phrase "Pesifa oeeah.!.
as used i. said treat.
Ma II fAAt - BNAA+t wv Afbll VII klCLtF
mine that all The rights of Russia 10 iuris.
dietion aud 10 tie zeal iisheries passed TO
the United States limited by the ccssion.
On the fifth point we decide and deter
mine that the United States have no right
to the protection Of or property jn the seals
f~reauehtiug the islands Ct the United
States In Behiing sea when found outside
he ordinary three milo limit. And,
whereas, the aforesaid discrimination Of
the foregoing questions as TO the exclusive
Jurisdiction Of the United States leaves
the subject In such Il position that the con-
currence of Great Britain is necessary TO
the establishment OF regulations for tho
proper ppeteatiqn apd bseasryatisG pf fur
Seals habitdally resortihg to Behripg sea,
we assent to the whole Of the nine ar.islea
u the following regulations as necessary
outside of the Jurisdiction limits of the
respective governments, and that they
should extend over the the wastsFs herein E,es.
HM~.eaiNuToN, Aug. IA. Secretary
Gresham is said to be anything but salts:
fed with the findings Of the Behping seq
court, and It b asserted that his aissatis:
faction extends TO the regulations. 1t il
understood that bis Views are shared by
other cabinet officers. As for the regula-
tons, they are that the United States will
have entailed on them the cost and worry
of patroling Behring sea without benefit
to its ~sealers, while Russia, Japan and
,4eftaga otAer nations leap a harvest. the
regulations being binding only to Great
Britain and this country.