ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 447 



very coast that my learued friend Mr. Carter has been speaking of, not 

 on the ground that it was called Northwest Coast. Nothing of the kind. 

 They knew perfectly well that Northwest Coast meant a great deal 

 more than that. They sought to put in terms of prohibition against 

 visit beyond that point. 



The President. — That excluded, of course, visiting Kadiak and 

 Uualaska. 



Sir Richard Webster. — It excluded everything. 



The President. — I thought it was more south. 



Sir Richard Webster. — Yes, I think it is a little more south. 



The President. — Yet you consider that part as excluded'? 



Sir Richard Webster. — Unquestionably from the point of view 

 they were bargaining Russia tried to limit it to that latitude, and they 

 had a reason for it, because between Great Britain and Russia there 

 was a discussion about the lisiere which only came into existence from 

 the point of view of the British Treaty. It has no relation to the United 

 States Treaty at all. 



Now let me read Article V (see p. 69, App. II, B. C.) : 



The High Contracting Powers stipulate moreover tliat their respective suhjects 

 shall freely navigate on the whole extent of the Pacific Ocean as much to the north 

 as to the south without any hindrance, and that they shall enjoy the right of fishing 

 on the high sea, but that this right shall not be exercised within a distance of two 

 marine leagues from the coasts or i)ossessious, be they Russian or be they British. 



Now again I ask, what ground is there for suggesting that the coasts 

 and possessions of Russia are to be limited to 00° or that the Pacific 

 Ocean does not go right up to Behring Straits? What argument can 

 be adduced in support of such contention except the assertion of 

 Counsel, which is not argument at all for this purpose. 



Senator Morgan. — Is that Treaty now in force? 



Sir Richard Webster. — This is not the Treaty: It is the Russian 

 projet. I am endeavoring to show that Russia understood Northwest 

 Coast and Pacific Ocean through the whole of this in exactly the same 

 sense that Great Britain understood it. Article Vi is, the Russian 

 Emperor wishing to give more proof of his regard for the interests of 

 the subjects of His Britannic Majesty, and to give all success to useful 

 enterprises which result from the discovery of the Northwest Passage 

 of the Continent of America, consents that this freedom of navigation, 

 mentioned in the preceding article, extends under the same conditions 

 au detroit de Behring, and the sea situate to the north of it. Now, I 

 ask Mr. Justice Harlan's kind consideration to this. The 100 miles has 

 disappeared in this document. There is not a trace of the 100 miles, 

 and they themselves proposed two marine leagues, and they speak of 

 the right of navigation and of fishing, which is to extend within two 

 marine leagues of the coast, as going right up to Behring Straits; and 

 yet in the face of this the successors in title of Russia allege a right to 

 say that the navigation at this time was understood by Great Britain 

 as meaning to be confined to that which was south of the Aleutian 

 Islands, and not to extend to these thousands of miles of water which 

 extended from the Aleutian Islands up to Behring Straits. 



Then Article VII provides that the Russian vessels and the British 

 vessels navigating in the Pacific Ocean and the sea above indicated, 

 that is the Arctic Ocean, as well when they are driven by tempests or 

 by damage had taken refuge in the respective ports of the High Con- 

 tiacting Parties. In the Northern Ocean and Pacific Ocean they 

 might get around to British possessions, and therefore up to the latest 

 date Russia (and this points my observation) is seeking to get Great 



