JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS IN BERINCJ SEA. 263 



Witli respect to Behriup,- Strait, I am happy to have it in my power to assure you, 

 ou tlie joint authority of tiie Russian pleniiioteutiaries, that tlie Emperor of Russia 

 ]ias no intention wliatever of maintainino; any exclusive chiim to the navigation of 

 tliose straits or of the seas to the north of them. 



It can not bo necessary, under these circumstances, to trouble you with a more 

 particular account of the several conferences wliich I have held with the Russian 

 plenipotentiaries, and it is but justice to state that I have found tliem disposed, 

 throughout this latter stage of the negotiation, to treat the matters iinder discussion 

 with tairness and liberality 



As two originals of the convention prepared for His Majesty's Govcriiment are 

 signed by the ]deni2)otentiaries, I propose to leave one of them with Mr. Ward for 

 the archives of the embassy. 

 I have, etc., 



Stratford Caisning. 



Mr. Blaine to Sir Jiillan Panneefote. 



Department of State, 



Wa shin f/f 0)1, December 17, 1890. 



Sir: Your note of Ano-nst 12, wliic-h I acknowledged on tlie 1st of 

 September, in(;losed ;i copy of a dispatcli from the Marquis of Salis- 

 bury, dated August 2, in reply to my note of June 30. 



The considerations advanced by his lordship have received the care- 

 ful attention of the President, and I am instructed to insist upou the 

 correctness and validity of the position which has been earnestly ad- 

 vocated by the Government of the United States, in defense of Ameri- 

 can rights in the Behring Sea. 



Legal and dii)lomatic questions, apparently comi)licated, are often 

 found, after prolonged discussion, to depend on the settlement of a 

 single point. Such, in the judgment of the President, is the position 

 in which the United States and Great Britain find themselves in the ^ 

 pending controversy touching the true constructiou of the Eusso- 

 American and Anglo-Russian treaties of 1824 and 1825. Great Britain 

 contends that the phrase "Pacitic Ocean," as used in the treaties, Avas 

 intended to include, and does include, the body of water which is now 

 known as the Behring Sea. The United States contends that the Beh- 

 ring Sea was not mentioned, or even referred to, in either treaty, and 

 was in no sense included in the phrase '^ Pacific Ocean." If Great 

 Britain can maintain her position that the Behring Sea at the time of 

 the treaties with Russia of 1824 and 1825 was included in the Pacific 

 Ocean, the Government of the United States has no well-grounded 

 complaint against her. If, on the other hand, this Government can 

 prove beyond all doubt that the Behring Sea, at the date of the treaties, 

 was understood by the three signatory Powers to be a separate body 

 of water, and was not included in the phrase " Pacific Ocean," then the 

 American case against Great Britain is complete and undeniable. 



The dispute prominently involves the meaning of the phrase "I^orth- 

 west Coast," or '■'■ K^orthwest Coast of America." Lord Salisbury assumes 

 that the "Northwest Coast" has but one meaning, and that it includes 

 the whole coast stretching northward to the Behring Straits. The con- 

 tention of this Government is that by long i)rcscription the "Northwest 

 Coast" means the coast of the Pacific Ocean, south of the Alaskan Penin- 

 sula, or south of the sixtieth parallel of north latitude; or, to define 

 it still more accurately, the coast, from the northern border of the Span- 

 ish possessions, ceded to the United States in 1819, to the point where 

 the Spanish claims met the claims of Russia, viz, from 42® to 60° laorth 

 latitude. The Russian authorities for a long time assumed that 59° 30' 



