474 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTET?, Q. C. M. P. 



There is no difference in this matter, Mr. President, between Spain 

 and France and Great Britain and China and Japan. All these nations, 

 if this is a declaration of ownership, are bound by it — a declaration of 

 ownership in the sense of meaning that the waters belonged originally 

 to Russia, and now belonged to the two countries. But will you kindly 

 look at the Treaty, sir? Does the treaty permit of such a contention? 

 Again we find that the most oidinary and ])roper language, has, for the 

 purpose of the necessities of the United States Case, been construed 

 as conveying a great deal more than to an ordinary reader they would 

 be thought to convey. I read from page 43 of the United States 

 Appendix, Volume I; and I will take the English version, which is 

 what Mr. Foster tells me is to be regarded as an original document, 

 and I will not in any way attempt to complicate the matter by an 

 examination of the French : 



The United States of America and. His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, 

 being desirous of strengthening, if possible, the good understanding which exists 

 between them, have, for that purpose, appointed as their plenipotentiaries: the 

 President of the United States, William H. Seward, Secretary of State; and His 

 Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, the Privy Counsellor, Edward de Stoeckl, 

 his Envoy Extraordinary, and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States. 



And the said plenipotentiaries having exchanged their full powers, which were 

 found to be in due form, have agreed upon and signed the following articles : 



Article I. 



His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias agrees to cede to the United States, 

 by this convention, immediately upon the exchange of the ratifications thereof, all 

 the territory and dominion now possessed by his said Majesty on the continent of 

 America and in the adjacent islands, the same being contained within the geograph- 

 ical limits herein set forth, to wit: 



That, Sir, does not look like an intention of Eussia to sell the owner- 

 ship of the waters of Behring Sea; and, mark you, Mr. President, if 

 there is anything in this point, Kussia has parted with the ownership, 

 whatever it may mean, of the waters, in the sense of excluding herself. 

 If there are to be any exclusive rights given to the United States by 

 this Treaty, it is not a question of Great Britain alone, and the other 

 Powers, but it is a question also of Eussia. 



Then the line is set out. That line, Mr. President, is our old line of 

 demarcation, running along the Usiere, and up to the 141st parallel 

 of longitude. Then the western line of boundary is thus defi.ned; 



The western limit within which the territories and dominion conveyed are con- 

 tained, passes through a point in Behring's Straits on the parallel of sixty-live 

 degrees thirty minutes north latitude, at its intersection by the meridian which 

 passes midway between the islands of Krusenstem, or Ignalook, and the island of 

 Ratmanoff, or Noonarhook, and proceeds due north, without limitation, into the 

 same Frozen Ocean. The same western limit, beginning at the same initial point, 

 proceeds thence in a course nearly southwest, through Behring's Straits and Behring 

 Sea, 80 as to pass midway between the northwest point of the island of St. Law- 

 rence and the southeast poiut of Cape Choukotski, to the meridian of one hundred 

 and seventy-two west longitude; thence, from the intersection of that meridian, in 

 a southwesterly direction, so as to pass midway between the island of Attou and 

 the Copper Island of the l^^omandorski couplet or group in the North Pacific Ocean. 



It is quite clear, Sir, that they thought the Komandorski group -^as in 

 the North Pacific Ocean when this Treaty was made : 



To the meridian of one hundred and seventy-two west longitude; thence, from 

 the intersection of that meridian, in a southwesterly direction, so as to pass midway 

 between the island of Attou and the Copper Island of the Komandorski couplet or 

 group in the North Pacific Ocean, to the meridian of one hundred and ninety-three 

 degrees west longitude, so as to include in the territory conveyed the whole of the 

 Aleutian Islands east of that meridian. 



