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



Eussian settlement north of the Aleutian chain was at a place called 

 Nushagak. The population was not considerable. There were three 

 Eussian males and two Eussian females, Nushagak is in Biistol Bay, 

 which is an indentation in the coast line north of the Aleutian penin- 

 sula. That is where the only settlement was. 



The United States Treaty of 1824. 



I now proceed with the correspondence, which is rapidly drawing to 

 aclose. I pointed out the suggestion made by Mr. Quincy Adams 

 887 in that important despatch of the 22nd July 1823, and I may pass 

 over the intervening correspondence and come to the question of 

 the Treaty itself. The Treaty itself, Mr. President, will be found on 

 page 35 of the same Volume with which I have been dealing. I do not 

 stop to do more than to recall the broad assertion of sovereign jurisdic- 

 tion made by Eussia in the Ukase of 1821, and in the Charter of 1821, 

 and now side by side with that we have the Treaty: 



It is agreed that in any part of the great Ocean commonly called the Pacific Ocean 

 or South Sea, the respective citizens or subjects of the high contracting powers 

 shall be neither disturbed nor restrained, either in navigation or in fishing or in the 

 power of resorting to the coasts upon points which may not already have been occu- 

 pied for the purpose of trading with the natives, saving always the restrictions and 

 conditions determined by the following articles. 



I do no more than ask this question. Is it possible, in view of the 

 assertions made by Eussia, in view of the statements of Mr. Quincy 

 Adams that no part of that claim can be admitted by the United States, 

 in view of the fact that from that position the United States never 

 departed, to contend that from this Treaty is to be excluded the whole of 

 Behring Sea and the coasts of the territory abutting upi»n Behring 

 Sea? We submit with all deference that that is an impossible and 

 absurd contention. 



Article II. With a view of preventing the rights of navigation and of fishing 

 exercised upon the Great Ocean by the citizens and. subjects of the high contracting 

 Powers from becoming the pretext for an illicit trade, it is agreed that the citizens 

 of the United States shall not resort to any point where there is a Russian estab- 

 lishment, without the permission of the governor or commander; and tliat, recipro- 

 cally, the subjects of Russia shall not resort without permission, to any establishment 

 of tlie United States upon the Northwest coast. 



Akticle III. It is moreover agreed that, hereafter, there shall not be formed by 

 the citizens of the United States, or under the authority of the said States, any 

 establishment upon the northwest coast of America, nor in any of the islands adja- 

 cent, to the north of 54 degrees and 40 minutes of north latitude; and that in the 

 same manner there shall be none formed by Russian subjects, or under the authority 

 of Russia south of the same parallel. 



Can it be suggested that that was restricted; and that when the 

 phrase "Northwest coast" is mentioned there, it did not mean that no 

 establishment along any part of that northwest coast should be made 

 north of 54° 40': and, in the same way as regards American territory, 

 none should be made by Eussian subjects south of that point? 



Then comes Article IV: 



It is, nevertheless, understood that during a term of ten years, counting from the 

 signature of the present Convention, the ships of both Powers, or which belong to 

 their citizens or subjects respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any hin- 

 drance whatever, the interior seas — 



we are dealing here with territorial waters, entrance to which is limited 

 to the ten years — 



gulfs, harbours, and creeks, upon the coast mentioned in the preceding article, for 

 the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the country. 



