APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 349 
{Inclosure in No. 2°7.] 
Myr. Blaine to Mr. Edwardes. 
Bar HARBOUR, MAINE, September 14, 1889. 
Stk: [have the honout to acknowledge the receipt of your personal note of the 
12th instant, written at Washington, in which you desire to know when you may 
expect an answer to the request of Her Majesty’s Government ‘that instructions 
may be sent to Alaska to prevent the possibility of the seizure of British ships in 
Behring’s Sea.” 
I had supposed that my note of the 24th August would satisfy Her Majesty’s Gov- 
ernment of the President’s earnest desire to come to a friendly agreement touching 
all matters at issue between the two Governments in relation to Behring’s Sea, and 
I had further supposed that your mention of the official instruction to Sir J. Paunce- 
fote to proceed, immediately after his arrival in October. to a full discussion of the 
question removed all necessity of a preliminary correspondence touching its merits. 
Referring more particularly to the question to which you repeat the desire of your 
Government for an answer, I have the honour to inform yon that a categorical 
response would have been and still is impracticable, unjust to this Government, and 
misleading to the Government of Her Majesty. It was therefore the judgment of 
the President that the whole subject could more wisely be remanded to the formal 
discussion so near at hand, which Her Majesty’s Government has proposed, and to 
which the Government of the United States has cordially assented. 
It is proper, however, to add that any instruction sent to Behring’s Sea at 
313 ~—the time of your original request, upon the 24th August, would have failed to 
reach those waters before the proposed departure of the vessels of the United 
States. 
I have, &¢. 
(Signed) JAMES G. BLAINE. 
No. 228. 
The Marquis of Salisbury to Mr. Edwardes. 
FOREIGN OFFICE, October 2, 1889. 
Srr: In my despatch of the 17th August I furnished you with copies* 
of a correspondence which had passed between this Department and the 
Colonial Office, on the subject of the seizure of the Canadian vessels 
‘ Black Diamond” and “Triumph” in the Behring’s Sea by the United 
States Revenue. cutter ‘* Rush.” 
I have now received, and transmit herewith, a copy of a despatch from 
the Governor-General of Canada to the Secretary of State for the Col- 
onies,t which incloses copies of the instructions given to the special offi- 
cer placed on board the ‘“* Black Diamond” by the Officer commanding 
the ‘‘Rush” and of a letter from the Collector of Customs at Victoria, 
together with the sworn affidavits of the masters of the two Canadian 
vessels. 
It is apparent from these affidavits that the vessels were seized at a 
distance from land far in excess of the limit of maritime jurisdiction 
which any nation can claim by international law. 
The cases are similar in this respect to those of the ships *‘ Caroline,” 
“Onward,” and “Thornton,” which were seized by a vessel of the 
United States outside territorial waters in the summer of 1887. Ina 
despatch to Sir L. West dated the 10th September, 1887, which was 
communicated to Mr. Bayard, I drew the attention of the Government 
of the United States to the illegality of these proceedings, and 
expressed a hope that due compensation would be awarded to the sub- 
jects of Her Majesty who had suffered from them. I have not since 
* Nos. 202, 203, and 204, t No, 222, 
