APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 49 
Negotiations between Great Britain and Russia on the subject of the same Ukase, 
and the prohibition above referred to, resulted in a Treaty between the two Powers, 
concluded on the 16th (28th) February, 1825, and containing the following provision, 
in which the right of fishing and navigation by Great Britain in any part of the 
Pacific Ocean is recognizea: 
“Tt is agreed that the respective subjects of the High Contracting Parties shall not 
be troubled or molested in any part of the ocean commonly called the Pacific Ocean, 
either in navigating the same, in fishing therein, or in landing at such parts of the 
coast as shall ‘not have been already occupied, in order to trade with the natives, 
under the restrictions and conditions specified in the following Articles.” (State 
Papers, vol. xii, p. 38.) 
So far as the Sub-Committee are aware, the claim was never revived until it is 
now for the first time put forward by the United States. 
It does not appear necessary to insist at any great length that the conditions 
attaching to maria clausa can not by any possibility be predicated of Behring’s Sea, 
and that the seizure of Canadian vessels at a distance of over 100 miles from the 
“mainland and 70 miles from the nearest island constitutes a high-hanvded extension 
of maritime jurisdiction unprecedented in the law of nations, but the Sub-Committee 
can not conclude without inviting the earnest attention of Her Majesty’s Govern- 
ment to the fact that Canadian citizens seized while engaged in the pursuit of their 
lawful vocation upon the high seas, and more than 70 miles from the nearest land, 
have been dragged before a foreign Court, their property confiscated, and themselves 
thrown into prison, where they still remain. 
The Sub-Committee express their confident hope that such representations will be 
at once made to the United States Government as will secure the immediate release 
of the imprisoned men, and full reparation for all losses and damage sustained by 
them. 
The Committee concur in the foregoing Report, and they advise that your Excel- 
lency be moved to transmit a copy of this Minute, if approved, to the Right 
Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies and to Her Majesty’s Minister at 
Washington. 
All which is respectfully submitted for your Excellency’s approval. 
(Signed) JOHN J. MCGEE, 
Clerk, Privy Council, Canada, 
APPENDIX (A). 
Mr. H. F. French, Acting Secretary, Treasury Department, to Mr. D. A. D’ Ancona, 717, 
O' Far rell Street, San Francisco, California, March 12, 1886, 
(See Inclosure 7 in No. 3.) 
APPENDIX (B). 
Mr. D. Manning, Secretary, Treasury Department, to the Collector of Customs, San Fran- 
cisco, March 16, 1886. 
(See Inclosure 7 in No. 3.) 
33 APPENDIX (C). 
Edict of His Imperial Majesty, Autocrat of All the Russias. 
The Directing Senate maketh known unto all men: whereas, in an Edict of His 
Imperial Majesty, issued to the Directing Senate on the 4th day of September, and 
signed by His Imperial Majesty’s own hands, it is thus expressed: 
“Observing from reports submitted to us that the trade of our subjects on the 
Aleutian Islands and on the north-west coast of America, appertaining unto Russia, 
is subjected, because of illicit and secret traffic, to oppression and impediments, and 
finding that the principal cause of these difficulties is the want of Rules establishing 
the boundaries for navigation along these coasts, and the order of naval communica- 
tion, as well in these places as on the whole of the eastern coast of Siberia and the 
Kurile Islands, we have deemed it necessary to determine these communications by 
specific Regulations which are hereto attached. 
BS, PT y——4 
