ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 433 



page 63. (Part. 2, Appen II B. C.) I will read the Englisli transla- 

 tion, althongh both the Englisli and French texts are cited side by side. 

 It says : 



It is agreed between tbe High Coutracting Parties that their respective subjects 

 shall eujoy the right of free navigation along the whole extent of the Pacific Ocean, 

 comprehending the sea within Behring's Straits. 



It is a little strong to suggest that the people who made the Treaty 

 a few months after this were not getting the right of navigating and 

 fishing in Behring Sea when they were writing on July 24:th, and there 

 using the expression Pacific Ocean in the sense of the sea extending 

 right up to Behring Straits so as to include the sea within Behring 

 Straits. Would you kindly turn, if I am not unduly trespassing upon 

 you, to the contreprojet which is given in French, and you will find it 

 at the beginning of page 65, there you will find no suggestion from 

 Russia that Great Britain was using "Pacific Ocean" or "north-west 

 coast" in a different meaning. On the contrary, the objection taken to 

 the language, as you will remember, — the Attorney General called your 

 attention to it — was not because Russia did not wish to give a right of 

 navigating in Behring Sea, but because they thought that the contre- 

 projet might give a right to visit places north of Behring Straits, and 

 yet it is to be supposed that the parties were negotiating, having again 

 put a limit to the ordinary words "Pacific Ocean" and "North- West 

 Coast". 



Lord Hannen. — The 7th. Article, as it appears to me, must point to 

 this, that the Russians treated the Pacific Ocean as reaching up to 

 Behring Straits. 



Sir Richard Webster. — Yes. 



Lord Hannen. — I think it is absolutely demonstrated that that is so 

 by these three Articles V, VI and VII. It draws a distinction in the 

 Vllth: between the Pacific Ocean up to Behring Strait, and the sea 

 beyond. 



Les vaisseaux Britanniques et Russes navignant snr I'Ocoan Pacifiqne et la mcr 

 ci-des8us iiidiqn^e 



That is the sea to the north of Behring Strait. 



qui seront forces par des tempetos, on par quelque autre accident h se r(^fugier dans 

 les ports respectifs, pourront s'y radouber ets'ypourvoirdetontes choses iK^cessaires, 

 et 86 remettre en mer librement, sans payer aucnn droit hors ceux de port et des 

 fanaux, qui n'exct'deront pas ce que payent les navires indigenes. 



Then at the end the expression is, "oii il aura aborde". 



Sir Richard Webster. — Yes. Would you look at Article VI, which 



says : 



Dorenavant il ne pourra etre form^ par les sujets britanniques aucnn <?tablisse- 

 meut, ni snr les cotes nl ^ur la lisiire du continent comprises dans les limites des 

 possessions Russes design*5e8 par 1' Article II. 



As to every document I might take up out of some forty or fifty, the 

 same observation might be made. I might say here — I do not court 

 interruption — I am only giving notice to my friend Mr. Phelps — that 

 there is not one single docuinent of all these in which the more limited 

 meaning is put ou "North West Coast"; and, therefore, although I 

 have endeavored to pick out the striking ones, they are by no means 

 the only documents that support my contention. It is the fact that in 

 negotiations extending for years between three great Powers — Russia 

 and the United States: Russia and Great Britain — there is not a trace 

 of this contention made for the first time by Mr. Blaine in the year 

 1890, in answer to Lord Salisbury. 

 B S, PT XIII 28 



