CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 101 



UKASE OI' 1S21 NKVElt AXNULLKI) IX HKHKIXU's SEA. 



In this note the Secretary of State thus expresses himself: 



The En<flisU statcsmau of that day bad, as I have before remarked, '" ' '*' "*"' 

 attempted the abolition of the Ukase of Alexander only so far as it 

 alfecte<l the coast of the Pacific Ocean from the 51st to the 60tb degree 

 of north latitude. It was left in full force on tne shores of the Behring 

 Sea. There is no proof whatever that the Russian Emperor annulled 

 it there. That sea, from east to west, is 1,300 miles in extent; from 

 north to south it is 1,000 miles in extent. The whole of this great 

 body of water, under the Ukase, was left open to the world, except a 

 strip of 100 miles from the shore. But with these 100 miles enforced 

 on all the coasts of the Behring Sea it would be obviously impossible 

 to approach the Straits of Behring, w^hich were less than 50 miles in 

 extreme width. . . . 



CLAIM TO COXTHOL RESTKICTEI) AllEA FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSE. 



The United States desires only such control over a limited extent of 

 the waters in the Behring Sea, for a part of each year, as will be sufiB- 

 cieut to insure the protection of the fur-seal lislieries, already injured, Il>iil., i>. 54. 

 possibly, to an irreparable extent by the intrusion of Canadian 



The repeated assertions that the (Jovernment of the United ibid., ],. 56. 

 l'S'2 States demands that the Behring Sea. be pronounced mare clausum 

 are without foundation. Tlie Government has never claiiued it, 

 and never desired it. It expressly disavows it. 



At the same time the United States docs not lack abundant author- 

 ity, according to the ablest exponents of international law, toi- hold- 

 ing a small section of the Behring Sea for the protection of the fur 

 seals. Controlling a comparatively restricted area of water for that 

 one specitic purpose is by no means the e{|uivalent of declaring the 

 sea, or any i>art thereof, mare claunitm. 



This disavowal of auy claim to Behriuft- Sea as a >><<o-e , ,^,'ip'' i'.""^^. 

 clau-sum is again referred to in Mr. Blaine's desi)atch of the No.3(1892k"i).2. 



14th April, 1891 . -^ee _ A,.pen d i x, 



On the 21st Febi-uary, 1891, in answer to the des])at('li 

 of Mr. Blaine of the 17th December, 1890, Lord Salisbury 

 wrote to Sir Julian I'auncefote: 



The effect of the discussion which has been carried on between the Blue Book, 

 two Governments has been materially to narrow the area of coutro- x-'^ "i^n^qf^^*^" 

 versy. It is now quite clear that the advi.sers of the President do not g-°" gj^ Aimen- 

 claim Behring Sea as a mare clausum, and indeed that they rc]>udiate dix, vol. iii. 

 that contention in express terms. Nor do they rely, as a justification 

 for the seizure of British ships in the open sea, upon the contention 

 that the interests of the seal fisheries give to the United States Gov- 

 ernment any right for that purpose which, according to international 

 law, it M'ould not otherwise possess. Whatever importance they 

 attach to the preservation of the fur-seal species, — and they justly 

 look on it as an object deserving the most serious solicitude, — they do 

 not conceive that it confers upon any ^laritime Power rights over the 

 open ocean which that Power could not assert on other grounds. 



The claim of the United States to prevent the exercise of the seal 

 fishery by other nations in Behring Sea rests now exclusively upon the 

 interest which by purchase they possess in a Ukase issued by the 

 Emperor Alexander I in the year 1821, which prohibits foreign vessels 

 from api)roaching within 100 Italian miles of the coasts and islands 

 then belonging to Russia in I'ehring Sea. 



In reply to this, Mr. Blaine wrote on the 14th April, 1891 : 



In the opinion of the President, Lord Salisburj' is Avholly and Blue Book, 

 strangely in error in making the following statement: " Nor do they ^^^o'^'f^q,,^*''*®; 

 [the advisers of the President] rely as a justification for the seizure ^"^ Appeniix 

 of P.ritish sliips in the open sea upon the contention that the interests Vol. ill. 

 of the seal fisheries give to the United States Government any right 



