ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 117 



860 Lord Hannen. — How much of that last is interpolated'? 



Sir Charles Russell, — The last sentence that I read, begin- 

 iiiug with the words, "In conclusion", and ending with the words 

 "Imperial Government". 



Lord Hannen. — You were giving the passages relied on in the United 

 States Case! 



Sir Charles Russell. — Yes, that is my point; I am anxious to bring 

 these passages on which the United States relied to the attention of the 

 Court. I hope the Tribunal realizes the importance of this matter. 



The President. — Sir Charles, I would suggest that yesterday you 

 read us a despatch of Mr. Blaine, from which it appears that the sug- 

 gestion of Mr. Blaine, and almost his very words, were the origin of 

 these four or five questions put in tlie sixth Article of the Treaty. Well, 

 I suppose, when Mr. lilaine framed these questions in his despatch, and 

 asked that they should be incorporated into a treaty with England, I 

 suppose he relied on some intrinsic arguments of value. Do you think 

 he already had a knowledge of these interpolations of Ivan Petroff "? 



Sir Charles Russell. — I am not in a position to inform the Tri- 

 bunal upon that point. 



The President. — I think he did know, as these interpolations have 

 been withdrawn by the United States counsel. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Certainly, I should judge — it is a mere 

 speculation, and of course my friends would know much better than 

 I — I should judge he had these before him. 



Lord Hannen. — That is to say, he had these original translations? 



Sir Charles Russell. — Quite so. 



Lord Hannen. — And was deceived by them. 



Sir Charles Russell. — I should judge so; but I do not know. 



Mr. Foster. — If it is not an unnecessary interruption, I would 

 explain about that. 



The President. — General Foster, will you kindly explain that. 



Mr. Foster. — With the President's permission. I will say that Mr. 

 Blaine had no knowledge whatever of the contents of these documents. 

 They were not known to any person in the Department, or any official 

 of the Government of the United States, until after we began to pre- 

 pare this case, when this person named by Sir Charles was called upon 

 as an expert in the Russian language to translate them. 



The President. — It is a question of dates, I suppose, which it is 

 easy to ascertain ? 



Mr. Foster. — As to the translation? 



The President. — Of course you know when the translations were 

 made, and when you first had to deal with this Ivan Petroff. 



Mr. Foster. — As to the matter of dates, they were not known until 

 after the ratification of the Treaty, April 9, 1892. 



Mr. Justice Harlan. — You mean the existence of the documents? 

 Mr. Foster. — No. The existence of these Russian documents 



861 was known. The contents of the documents were not known. 

 They had not been translated. The officials of the Department of 



State, of course, knew that we received from the Russian Government 

 under the Treaty certain archives and documents of the Government of 

 Alaska. These were sent to Washington and placed in the Department 

 of State. Their contents had never been translated; and as there are 

 very few persons in the United States, especially in Washington, who 

 are acquainted with the Russian language, the contents were not known 

 to the officials of the Department. But the existence of the documents 

 was known, and wheu this case came to be prepared, it naturally sug- 



