286 DIPLOMATIC CORKESPONDENCE. 



under discussion between tlie two Governments for the last four years. 

 I shall endeavor to state what, in the Judgment of the President, those 

 issues are: 



First. What exclusive jurisdiction in the sea now known as tlie 

 Beliring Sea, and what exclusive riglits in the seal tishcries therein, 

 did Eussia assert and exercise prior and up to the time of the 

 cession of Ahislia to the United States'? 



Second. How far were these claims of jurisdiction as to the seal 

 fisheries recognized and conceded by Great Britain? 



Third. Was the body of water now^ known as the Bering Sea 

 included in the phrase "Pacific Ocean," as used in the treaty of 

 1825 between Great Britain and Eussia; ;ind what rights, if any, 

 in the Behring Sea were given or conceded to Great Britain by the 

 said treaty"^ 



Fourth. Did not all the rights of Eussia as to jurisdiction, and 

 as to the seal fislieries in Behring Sea east of the water boundary, 

 in the treaty bet^A ecu the United States and Eussia of March 30, 

 1867, pass unimpaired to the United States under that treaty? 



Fifth. What are now the rights of the United States as to the 

 fur-seal fisheries in the waters of tlie Behring- Sea outside of the 

 ordinary territorial limits, whetlier such riglits grow out of the 

 cession l>y Eussia of any special rights or jurisdiction hehl by her 

 in such fisheries or in the waters of Behring Sea or out of the owner- 

 ship of the breeding islands and the habits of the seals in resorting 

 thither and rearing their young thereon and going out from the 

 islands for food, or out of any other fact or incident connected with 

 the relation of those seal fisheries to the territorial possessions of 

 the United States? 



Sixth. If the determination of the foregoing questions shall 

 leave the subject in such position that the concurrence of Great 

 Britain is necessary in prescribing regulations for the killing of 

 the fur seal in any part of the waters of Behring Sea, then it shall 

 be further determined: First, how far, if at all, outside the ordi- 

 nary territorial limits it is necessary that the United States should 

 exercise an exclusive jurisdiction in order to protect the seal for 

 the time living upon the islands of the United States and feeding 

 therefrom. Second, whether a closed season (during which the 

 killing of seals in the waters of Behring Sea outside the ordinary 

 territorial limits shall be prohibiteil) is necessary to save the seal- 

 fishing industry, so valuable and important to mankind, from de- 

 terioration or destruction. And, if so, third, what months or 

 parts of months should be included in such season, and over what 

 waters it should extend. 

 The repeated assertions that the Government of the United States 

 demands that the Behring Sea be pronounced mare chdi.mm, are with- 

 out foundation. The Government has never claimed it and never de- 

 sired it. It expressly disavows it. At the same time the United States 

 does not lack abundant authority, according to the ablest exponents of 

 international law, for holding a small section of the Behring Sea for the 

 protection of the fur seals. Controlling a comparatively restricted 

 area of water for that one specific pur i)ose is by no means the equiva- 

 lent of declaring the sea, or any part thereof, mare clausum. Nor is it 

 by any means so serious an obstriKjtion as Great Britain assununl to 

 make in the South Atlantic, nor so gioundless an interference with the. 

 common law ot the sea. as is maintained by British authority to-day in 

 the Indian Ocean. The President does not, however, desire the long 



