Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1893 — BERING SEA DECISION [ARTICLE]

BERING SEA DECISION

UNITED STATES CLAIMS ARE NOT ALLOWED. No Right to the Protection of, or Property in, the Seals Frequenting the Islands of the United States When Found Ontslde the Ordinary Three-Mile Limit. Victory for Britons. Baron De Courcel, President of the Behring Sea arbitration tribunal, has announced in Paris tho decision of the arbitrators on the issues presented to it. Except for a provision that the seals shall be protected from indiscriminate slaughter, the decision is entirely against the United States. Not a proposition put forth by the American counsel has been agreed to by the tribunal. Every issue made by tho United States has been decided in favor of Great Britain. The arbitrators practically deny that Russia assorted or exercised exclusive rights in the seal fisheries prior to the purchase of Alaska by the United States. That any such claims were recognized and conceded by Great Britain and that the United States have any property rights in the seal fisheries other than those belonging to all other nations. Uncle Sam is beaten at every point touching its sovereignty over the Behring sea, and the crum of consolatioi in thp matter of protection of the seaie is not sweetened by the accompanying declaration that this power of protection does not lie in the United States but in the ruling of the tribunal. American Claims Rejected. In a general way the tribunal rejects the claim of the United States’that the Behring Sea is a mare clausum and denies to the United States exclusive property rights seal fisheries. On the . other haßd-Hhe arbitrators sustain ’ooptenCion of the United Sititqg ;ssst pelagic seah ing should;. 'pe . ■'.pttfiVpeC' l and that tha seal horas should'be protected from extermination by poachers. To effect this end the tribunal rules that there shall be maintained a closed season, beginning May 1 and ending July 21, during which no seals may be killed. This prohibition applies not onl;« to Behring sea, but to the north" Pacific oeoan. To save the teals from slaughter at their breeding places in the Pribylov Islands a protective zone extending sixty miles around the islands is established, and sealing outside this zone is to he permitted only after Aug. 1. Further protection from indiscriminate slaughter is provided in the prohibition by the terms of the decision of the use of fire-arms by sealtakers.

Uncle Sam’s Contentions. The contentions of the United States as to' its exclusive jurisdiction in Behring Sea, acquired from Russia bj’ the purchase of Alaska and its property rights in the seal fisheries, are contained in the following five points of article 6 of the treaty creating the tribunal of arbitration: 1. What exclusive jurisdiction intheseanow known as Bchrinv Sea and what exclusive rights in the seal fisheries therein, did Russh’ assert and exercise prior and np to the time ol the cession of Alaska to tho United States? 2. How far were these claims of Jurisdiction as to the seal fisheries recognized and conceded by Great Britain? 8. Was the body of water now known as the Behring sea included in the phrase "Pacific icean, as used in the treaty of 1825 between ire at Britain and Russia: and what rights, if any, in the Behring sea were held and ex clnsively exercised by Russia after said treaty? 4. Did not all the rights of Russia as to Jurisdiction and as to the seal fisheries In Bchrinr sea, east of tho water boundary, In the treatv between the United States and Russia of the noth of March-, 1807, pass unimpaired to tin United States under that treaty? fi. Has tho United States any rights, and. i' so, what right, of protection of property ii the fur seals frequenting the islands of tin United States In Behring Sea when suoh seal, are found outside the ordinary three-milt limits ? The decision as rendered is practically a knock out for the United Statesand a victory for England.

How the World Wags, A. W. Dunham killed his wife at Pensacola, Fla., and ended his own life. August Utlant was run overby a wagon at Greenville, Ala., and killed. The Meadow Grove carpet works burned at Ardmore, Pa. Loss, 800,000. Louis F. Menage, the missing financier of St. Paul, has been located in Chili. The shop force of the Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway has been paitj off and discharged. The International Labor Exchange at New York has opened with a great labor display. Pastors of Denver churches unite in calling on the President to announce a public fast day. John Rourke was stabbed to death at Lima, 0., by Frank Elderin. The affair occurred at a disreputable resort. General managers of Eastern lines have adopted a resolution to boycott the Wheeling & Lake Erie for rate cutting. Oscar Copeland, a farmer living south of Parsons, Kas., was killed by being struck in the breast by a rearing horse. Charles A. cashier of the Seven Qqvbers' Rank of St. Paul, is charged vtifa laftfeoy by the President. • if • ,a- ;•.<?* : Hawaiian IsDyg,listß have paid the taxes leviea bji; feik gntfvisional government,* therefcyr*«cffnowledging its supremacy. .. •-'> Yellow fefy^r* i ,'Taas appeared in Brunswick, Ga.. the mrst person stricken being tHe officer detailed to enforce quarantine. AT the request of the Mayor the .entire police force of Harrisburg, Pa., has resigned, because of charges of illegal appropriation of fees. Richard Lappin, a switchman on the Lake Erie and Western road at Tipton, Ind., was killed by falling underneath the wheels of an engine. By the burning of the Spanish steamer San Juan, on the coast of I China, 182 lives; were lost. Many persons were devoured by sharks. Two locomotives, two engine-houses and coal chutes, property of the Niagara Central Railroad, burned at St. i Catherines, Ont. Loss, $25,000. Seth Haskins and Harry Creaston were overcome by poisonous gases : while cleaning a well near Chillicothe, Mo., and died before help arrived. Rhode Island’s Supreme Court has rendered an opinion upholding Go\. Brown in proroguing the Legislature . before going into grand commmittee. The Baldwin locomotive works has 1 discharged a large number of men, besides laying off 3,000 employes.

Three men attempted to enter the express car in a Big Four train at Crawfordsville, Ind. Messenger Julian shot one, and the others disappeared. Antone Kalulsky and hia' wife were attacked Iw striking miners near Leavenworth, Kansas, and severely beaten. Mrs. Kalulsky may not recover. At Lebanon, Ind., Miss Amanda Sundin took chloroform; at New Brighton, Minn., Charles Clough shot himself, and at Cincinnati, George Rogers killed himself with a revolver.