JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS IN BERING SEA. 293 



that tlie Bay of Biscay forms part of tlie Atlantic Ocean, or that the 

 Gulf of Lyons forms ])art of the Mediterranean Sea; and yet in most 

 maps it will be found that to those portions of the larger sea a separate 

 designation has beeu given. The question whether by the words " Pa- 

 citic Ocean " the negotiators meant to include or to exclude Behring Sea 

 depends upon which locution was esteemed to be the correct usage at 

 the time. The date is not a. distant one, and there is no ground for sug- 

 gesting that the usage has changed since the Angio Kussian treaty of 

 1825 was signed. The determination of this i^oint will be most satis- 

 factorily ascertained by consulting the ordinary books of reference. I 

 append to this dispatcli a list of some thirty works of this class, of 

 various dates from 1795 downwards, and printed in various countries, 

 which combine to show that, in customary parlance, the words "Pa- 

 cific Ocean" do include Behring Sea.^ 



If, then, in ordinary language, the Pacific Ocean is used as a phrase 

 including the whole sea from ])ehring Straits to the Antarctic Circle, it 

 follows that the 1st article of the treaty of 1825 did secure to Great 

 Britain in the fullest manner the freedom of navigation and fishing in 

 Behring Sea. In that case no inference, however indirect or circuitous, 

 can be drawn from any omission in the language of that instrument to 

 show that Great Britain acquiesced in the usurpation which the ukase 

 of 1821 had attempted. The other documents which I have quoted 

 sufticiently establish that she not only did not acquiesce in it, but re- 

 pudiated it more than once in plain and unequivocal terms; and as the 

 claim made by the ukase has no strength or validity except what it 

 might derive from the assent of any power whom it might affect, it re- 

 sults that Russia has never acquired by the ukase any right to curtail 

 the natural liberty of Her Majesty's subjects to navigate or fish in these 

 seas anywhere outside territorial waters. And what Russia did not 

 herself possess she was not able to transmit to the United States. 



Her Majesty's Government have, in view of these considerations, no 

 doubt whatever that British subjects enjoy the same rights in Behring 

 Sea which belong to them in every other portion of the open ocean ; but 

 it is, nevertheless, a matter of sincere satisfaction that the President is 

 willing to refer to arbitration what he conceives to be the matters which 

 have been under discussion between the two Governments for the last 

 four years. In regard to the questions as they are proposed by Mr. 

 Blaine, I should say that as to the first and second, no objection will be 

 offered by Her Majesty's Government. They are as follows: 



(1) What exclusive jurisdiction in the sea now known as the Behring Sea and what 

 exclusive rights in the seal fisheries therein did Russia assert and exercise prior and 

 up to the time of the cession of Alaska to the United States? 



(2) How far were these claims of jurisdiction as to the seal fisheries recognized and 

 conceded by Great Britain? 



The third question is expressed in the following terms : 



Was the body of water now known as the Behring Sea included in the phrase " Pa- 

 cific Ocean '' as used in the treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia and 

 what rights (if any) in the Behring Sea were given or conceded to Great Britain by 

 the said treaty? 



Her Majesty's Government would have no objection to referring to 

 arbitration the first part of that question, if it should be thought desira- 

 ble to do so; but they would give that consent with the reservation that 

 they do not admit that the decision of it can conclude the larger ques- 



'For appendix to this dispatch see Senate Ex. Doc. No. 55, Fifty-second Congress, 

 first session, pp. 21-23. 



