QUESTION FIVE. 85 



coasts; and the United States, suggesting that a fair distance would 

 be as far out as (British Case, App., p. 60) 



" the well defined path of the Gulf Stream," 

 asked that the following might be agreed to : 



" It is agreed that all armed vessels belonging to either of the par- 

 ties engaged in war, shall be effectually restrained by positive orders, 

 and penal provisions, from seizing, searching, or otherwise interrupt- 

 ing or disturbing vessels to whomsoever belonging, whether outward 

 or inward bound, within the harbours or the chambers formed by 

 headlands, or anywhere at sea, within the distance of four leagues 

 from the shore, or from a right line from one headland to another ; " 



Here we find the United States themselves putting forward the 

 principle of a headland line and asserting that their jurisdiction 

 should extend to a distance of twelve marine miles from that line. 



After negotiation, the limit was fixed at 5 marine miles from the 

 shore, but the convention never became effective, and it is therefore 

 clear that the United States did not at that time claim that the juris- 

 diction of Great Britain over her territorial waters was limited to 

 the extent that is now suggested. 



In 1846, by the treaty of Washington made between Great Britain 

 and the United States, it was stipulated that the boundary between 

 the United States and British North America should follow the 49th 

 parallel of latitude (British Case, App., p. 33) 



'" to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from 

 Vancouver's Island ; and thence southerly through the middle of the 

 said channel, and of Fuca's Straits, to the Pacific Ocean i " 



Disputes involving the title to various islands having arisen. 

 97 the boundary question at issue between the two nations was 

 submitted to the arbitration of the German Emperor, and in 

 1873 a protocol was signed at Washington for the purpose of mark- 

 ing out the frontier in accordance with his arbitral decision. By 

 this decision the boundary, after passing the islands which had given 

 rise to dispute; is carried across a space of water 35 miles long by 

 20 miles broad, and is then continued for 50 miles down the middle 

 of a strait 15 miles broad, until it touches the Pacific Ocean midway 

 between Bonilla Point on Vancouver's Island and Tatooch Island 

 lighthouse on the United States shore, the waterway being there 10 

 miles in width. The United States in this case, therefore, continue to 

 claim as territorial their share of the waters of a strait which is 

 much more than 6 miles in width, and recognise the right of Great 

 Britain to the other moiety. 



In 1885, it was held by the United States Court of Commissioners 

 of " Alabama " Claims, that Chesapeake Bay was United States 

 territory, and that seizures made by the Confederate cruisers within 



