COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 21 



RUSSIA DOES NOT PREVENT FOREIGNERS FROM WHALING. 



(4.) M. Ricord says, in liis letter, that,oiving to the smaJIness of our 

 forces ill that part of tlie world, ive cannot prevent foreigners from 

 whaling. In the liist place, we may not be so weak as he supposes. 

 The occasional appearance of a single properly armed ship may be 

 sufficient to keep quiet and disperse all these whalers. In the second 

 place, if they are able to get possession of this industry by force, why 

 should this force be sanctioned by a formal Agreement? 



The following extract from a letter from the Board of 

 Management ot the Eussian-American Company to Captain 

 Muraviett", Chief Manager of the Eussian-American Colo- 

 nies, concerning Pigott, is also interesting: 



(No. 149.) February 28, 1822. 



The Board were atvare that Captain Pigott, who teas at Kamtchatka, Ibid., p. 62. 

 intended to sail themce to our Colonies, and your despatch No. 8 of the 

 18th January, 1821, confirmed them in their belief that he proposed to 

 visit waters belonging to Eussia. He has j^aid you a visit, as you 

 report, under stress of weather, and you have done right in assisting 

 him; but he would never have come to Novo-Arkhangelsk if he had 

 not lieen forced to put into that port; what he meant to do teas to collect 

 furs secretly at other places. It was with this object, and in order to 

 21 get a footing for this purpose on the Aleutian Islands or on the 

 northern islands situated in the direction of Behring Strait, that he 

 made his proposal, of which you have already been informed, with 

 regard to whaling and fishing for the benefit of Kamtchatka and 

 Okhotsk; in the meantime, he has been asking permission from 

 Dobelio, M. Ricord's friend, to trade with the Tshuktshes [on the 

 northern Asiatic coast], and to use the Russian flag while so engaged. 



THE ONLY EVIDENCE OFFERED OF RUSSIAN JURISDIC- 

 TION OVER WATERS CONSISTS IN TRANSLATOR'S INTER- 

 POLATIONS. 



Several passages are quoted from the correspondence of 

 the Eussian-American Company in the Case presented on 

 behalf of the United States, as proving the assertion by 

 Eussia of jurisdiction over waters; but it will be found 

 that the alleged proof is supported only by passages which 

 are not contained in the original documents, and have been 

 interpolated. 



The quotations are set out below, the interpolated pas- case.'pp. 43,^44.^* 

 sages being printed in small capitals and underlined and 

 enclosed in brackets. 



Thus at pp. 43 and 44, the United States rely on the 

 following extracts from a letter dated the 9th April, 1820, 

 from the Eussian Minister of Finance to the Eussian 

 Minister of Marine : 



It appears of the most imperative necessity for the preservation of tTanslatloJ^^ee 

 our sovereignity in the north-western part of America [and on the Appendix, vol. i, 

 ISLANDS AND WATERS SITUATED BETWEEN THEM] , to maintain there P- ^^-^ 

 continuously two ships of the Imperial fleet.* 



*This type, inclosed in brackets, always denotes an interpolation of 

 the kind mentioned in the Introduction. A reference to the inter-" 

 polations would now be immaterial, were it not that it is necessary to 

 show to how large an extent the case of the United States rests upon 

 them. 



