28 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



in the ukase of 1821 by the words, " All along the north- 

 west coast of America, from Bering Strait to the 51st parallel 

 of latitude." He endeavored further to show that the Eng- 

 lish protests against Russian sovereignty over the Pacific 

 Ocean were made with a similar intention arid meaning, and 

 therefore concluded, Why should not the United States 

 enjoy the same exclusive jurisdiction over the waters of 

 Bering Sea, that Russia had asserted and maintained without 

 opposition during so long a period of years ? 



Lord Salisbury denied the correctness of Mr. Elaine's inter- 

 pretation of the words " Pacific Ocean," and insisted that by 

 the terms of the ukase the " Pacific Ocean " extended to 

 Bering Strait, and included the Bering Sea, and that, there- 

 fore, the American and English protests before referred to 

 were actually directed against Russian claims in the Bering 

 Sea, as well as against her claims over the ocean south of the 

 Bering Sea. He attacked the implied American contention 

 of mare clausum as applied to the Bering Sea, and offered in 

 the end to arbitrate the whole matter. 



The drift of these arguments had brought the American 

 and English contentions to a single issue, the question 

 whether the protests of both the United States and England 

 against the hundred-mile limit of Russian sovereignty in the 

 Pacific Ocean from Bering Strait down the northwest coast of 

 America to 51 latitude, and down the Siberian coast to the 

 45 50' latitude, were directed against those Russian claims in 

 the Bering Sea, or only in the Pacific ( Ocean exclusive of the 

 Bering Sea. Had Russia really been unmolested in her extra- 

 ordinary assumption of sovereignty in the waters of Bering 

 Sea, or had her claims been met and opposed by foreign pro- 

 test? Obviously, the discussion hinged upon the meaning of 

 the words " Pacific Ocean." Mr. Blaine, accepting this issue, 

 went so far as to say: "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 govern- 

 ment can prove beyond all doubt that the Behring Sea, at 



