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APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 319 
Islands, extending in the form of a circle to the westward, dividing the Pacific Ocean 
from the Behring’s Sea. These islands are undoubtedly of volcanic formation, and 
while they extend some 1,200 miles to the westward, they do not inclose the Beh- 
ring’s Sea. The Island of Atton is our extreme western possession. The distance 
from the Island of Atton to Copper Island is 175 miles, and to the nearest point of the 
Kamchatka coast or Siberian side, 370 miles. Now if our Government can claim and 
control asea with a passage 370 miles across, we want to know how she is going to do 
it, and on what grounds. Certainly not that it is an inclosed sea. More especially, 
when you again look at the Chart, you see that the Island of Atton is at the extreme 
end of the chain of islands, and as you follow this chain of islands back to the east- 
ward as far as Unimak Pass, that between these islands are wirle passages, allowing 
vessels of the largest dimensions to pass in and out of the Behring’s Sea at will, a 
distance of some ile 200 miles to the Siberian coast, in a direct westward line. By eare- 
fully perusing this Chart it must convince the sceptical that our Government has no 
claim to the Behring’s Sea as an inclosed sea. 
We now come to the question of the jurisdiction of the Behring 's Sea as taken by 
our Government, caused by the seal question. For this reason the Chart of the North 
Pacific Ocean and the Behring’ s Sea is sent to you so that it may show just how 
broad the claim our Government has taken in this matter. You will notice on the 
Chart of the Behring’s Sea the line called the United States imaginary boundary- 
line, called this for lack of no better name. This line has been laid out er imagined 
to exist in an open sea 1,200 miles across in its widest part, something never before 
claimed by any other Power in the history of the world. The impression has gone 
out that the Behring’s Sea is an inclosed water, and under the full control of the 
United States and Russia. Just how or where this claim was first obtained no one 
seems to know. It sprang into existence like a mushroom, and apparently with 
about the same strength and standing. Our Government could, with the same con- 
sistency, all of a sudden claim the control of the Gulf of Mexico. It is considered 
by all maritime laws that a nation can only control a certain distance of the sea from, 
her shores. This has been the established custom as a maritime law for an indefinite 
time, and our Government insists that onr American fishermen shall have all right 
outside of the 3-mile Jimit from land in the controversy between the Canadian and 
American fishermen, and would not consider the 10-miles headland point as asked 
by the Canadians, but when they come on the Pacific in the Behring’s Sea they go 
directly back on what they claim on the eustern side, and say, We own all this sea, 
and if you are found in it your vessels are subject to seizure and yourself fined, 
making no allowance whatever for what portion you may be in, w hether 1 mile or 
100 miles from land. Our Government then going directly back on what it claims 
from the Canadian authorities on the other side, we ask, can this claim be held when 
it comes to a final issue? So far it has been done by force, but might is not always 
right, and can any one claim but what our Government will have yet to pay for the 
damages to the Canadians and her own citizens for the losses they have sustained by 
the seizure of their vessels and forfeiture of same by our Government in its raid 
among the sealers in the year 1887 in the Behring’s Sea. 
By what other rights has the United States to the Behring’s Sea? It is claimed 
that Russia ceded and sold to the United States the full and absolute right and con- 
trol of all the waters of the Behring’s Sea. The question cS did Russia do this? Did 
she sell this open sea, the public highway of the whalers, for an indefinite length of 
time in the past, to the whaling erounds i in the Arctic—the highway of England vid 
the Yukun River to her possessions in the farnorth. She did not doit. She sold her 
rights of the shore-line only, of which undoubtedly she had a right todo. Russia, 
despots and tyrants as they have proved themselves to be in all their dealings with 
nations and private individuals, never has and does not to this day claim or exercise 
jurisdiction of the Behring’s Sea, except the shore-line. American, English, and ves- 
sels of all nations are allowed to hunt, fish, and trade without molestation in the 
waters of Behring’s Sea, adjacent to Russian possessions, providing they respect the 
shore-line. The ‘Russian Consul at Yokahama has in the past, and ‘undoubtedly does 
at the present, issue orders to parties fitting out for hunting in the Behring’s Sea, 
warning them not to intrude on the shore- line, within so many miles from shor e, 
288 thus practically admitting that she had no claim to this open high sea. Is not 
this fact alone sufficient evidence that she never sold to the United States what 
is now claimed she sold? She sold what she owned, and that was the shore-line only. 
It seems that this imaginary boundary-line as set down on the Chart originated in 
imagination much the same as many stories, and after being told awhile is accepted 
as a fact and believed to be true, even by the person who first told the story. But 
when a thorough investigation is made, it is found that they will not hold water, and 
are matters of fiction only. 
Having now reviewed this question, we ask our eastern Congressmen and Senators 
and Eastern newspapers to examine the merits of this case, so ‘that when this linpor- 
tant measure comes up they will know the full value of the same, and will act in the 
way that will be for the best interest of the most people of the United States. When 
