ARGUMENT OP CHARLES B. WARREN. 1079 



points the attempt to shut up the passage altogether, and the claim 

 of exclusive dominion to so enormous a distance from the coast the 

 Russian Government are prepared entirely to waive their preten- 

 sions. The only effort that has been made to justify the latter claim 

 was by reference to an article in the Treaty of Utrecht, which assigns 

 thirty leagues from the coast as the distance of prohibition. But to 

 this argument it is sufficient to answer that the assumption of such a 

 space was, in the instance quoted, by stipulation in a Treaty, and one 

 to which, therefore, the party to be affected by it had (whether wisely 

 or not) given its deliberate consent. No inference could be drawn 

 from that transaction in favor of a claim by authority against all the 

 world." 



THE PRESIDENT: What was the contention, please, Sir, of the 

 United States in the Fur Seal Arbitration concerning the right of 

 taking fur seals? What limits and what regulations were contended 

 for by the United States? 



MR. WARREN : Mr. President, if you will pardon me, I shall come 

 to the position of the United States in the Behring Sea controversy 

 at a time when it can be more properly treated in connection with 

 other matters, and I shall then bear in mind the question put by the 

 President. 



THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. 



MR. WARREN, resuming: Lord Salisbury also enclosed the instruc- 

 tion given by Mr. George Canning to Mr. Stratford Canning, when 

 the latter was named Plenipotentiary to negotiate the treaty of 1825 

 between Great Britain and Russia, which followed the negotiations to 

 which Mr. George Canning, the Principal Secretary of State for 

 Foreign Affairs, referred in his letter, just read, of 1822, to the Duke 



of Wellington. 



650 It was this treaty between Great Britain and Russia of 1825 

 that the Alaska Boundary Tribunal was called upon to inter- 

 pret, as between the United States and Great Britain. 



I will read now from p. 572 of vol. V of the Proceedings of the 

 Fur Seal Arbitration. This is what Lord Salisbury himself said in 

 1890: 



" Upon this point the instructions given by Mr. George Canning to 

 Mr. Stratford Canning, when the latter was named Plenipotentiary 

 to negotiate the Treaty of 1825, have a material bearing. Writing 

 under date the 8th December, 1824, after giving a summary of the 

 negotiations up to that date, he goes on to say : 



Now, passing over a part of the note, I resume reading at the bot- 

 tom of p. 572, where Lord Salisbury quotes from Mr. George Can- 

 ning's instructions to Mr. Stratford Canning: 



" The law of nations assigns the exclusive sovereignty of one league 

 to each Power off its own coasts, without any specified stipulation, 

 and though Sir Charles Bagot was authorized to sign the Convention 



