QUESTION FIVE. 71 



It is stated that in 1804 " the question of the extent of territorial 

 waters became important in connection with the British assertion of 

 the right to search for British seamen in the United States ships on 

 the high seas;" and much attention is paid to expressions on the 

 part of the United States of a desire, at that time and for that rea- 

 son, to establish a wide strip of territorial waters along the coasts 

 of the United States within which British vessels might be restrained 

 from forcibly seizing and impressing American seamen. The British 

 Case omits to state, however, that the position taken by Great Britain 

 at that time was that three marine miles from shore was the limit of 

 maritime jurisdiction, and could not be extended by one nation be- 

 yond that distance from its shores so as to affect the rights of another 

 nation, without the consent or acquiescence of that nation. This 

 position was insisted upon by Great Britain in the negotiations with 

 the United States resulting in the unratified treaty of 1806, which 

 related in part to maritime jurisdiction, and by which as stated 

 in the British Case, "an attempt was made to fix by agreement 

 the limit of United States jurisdiction upon its coasts;" but 

 all that is said about this treaty in the British Case is that in 

 these negotiations the United States suggested that a fair distance 

 would be as far out " as the well-defined path of the gulf stream," 

 and that " after negotiations the limit was fixed at ' 5 marine miles 

 from the shore,' but the convention never became effective." & It 

 is of interest to note, therefore, that the limit of five marine miles, 

 fixed by this treaty, was regarded by Great Britain as an exten- 

 sion of the maritime jurisdiction of the United States, and that 

 such extension was qualified by a limitation in the treaty that it 

 should not apply to nations "which shall not have agreed to re- 

 spect the said special limit or line of maritime jurisdiction herein 

 agreed upon," the limit of " a cannon shot, or three marine miles 

 from the said coast " being recognized as the limit applying to them. 

 It will be found further, that in these negotiations the extension of 

 marine jurisdiction to five marine miles, agreed upon in the treaty, 

 was regarded as wholly dependent upon the treaty stipulations, and 



a British Case, p. 85. c U. S. Counter-Case Appendix, p. 22. 



6 British Case, p. 86. 



