Montgomery County sentinel., 1890-08-01
The Behring Sea Controversy.

The dexterity with which Mr.. Blaine is
assumed to have conducted his side of the
wordy controversy with Lord Salisbury in
the Behring Sea fisheries dispute, while it
may advance his reputation as a clever con-
troversialist, cannot alter the real merits OF
the case or hide the intrinsic weakness of
the position assumed by the administration
at Washington. 1t is idle to attempt to draw
distinction between claim of territorial
sovereignty over waters which for purposes
Of navigation and fishery are free to all
mapkind and claim OF a right to police those
waters for the purpose of preventing the
taking of seals contrary TO our laws by the
subjects and vessels of other nations. I'm
less the United States owns the Behring Sea
in the same sense that it does the Cnesa-
peake or Delaware bay our laws can have
no application beyond the limits OF our own
territory to any but our own citizens. 1t is
equally futile to attempt to mask an effort
to uphold the monopoly of a private corpo-
ration in the business of catching seals un-
der an affectation of solicitude for the pres
ervation of the seals, for the sake, we pre-
sumo, of future wearers of sea,skin muifs
and jackets.
That the exclusive claim OF the United
States asserted by Mr.. Blaine must rest up
on a foundation of territorial right or upon
stration. Our State Department would never
dream, for example, OF asserting the same
right TO protect the seal fisheries in the
Antarctic ocean as in Behrng Sea- even
if an American company were engaged in
the business OF catching seals in these South
ern latltudes where at one time they abound
ed. The whole controversy hinges upon the
single point-what exclusive rights OF own
ership or jurisdiction have the United States
over the waters OF Behring Sea? Whatever
those rights are they were necessarily ac-
quired from Russia, as incident to the pur-
chase of Alaska. The primary question
then is what rights did Russia have which
she could convey to the United States?
Unfortunately for the position taken by
Mr.. Blaine, history shows that more than
sixty years ago Russia asserted the right to
interdlct navigation and fishing by other
nations in the waters of Behring Sea within
the distance OF one hundred Italian miles
from the coast line of the North American
possessions, and that the claim was no
sooner made than it was met with words of
energetic protest and resistance on the part
of the United States and Great Britain, and
was shortly thereafter formerly abandoned,
and never subsequently revived.
In 1891 the Emperor Alexander asserted
the claim in an imperial ukase, which, as
soon as it came to the knowledge of the gov
ernment of this country, ELECTED from the
administration of President Monroe most
vigorous protest. Mr. Blaine will find in the
hles OF his own department the American
correspondence on the subject in the years
1899 3-'24, addressed to the Russian min.
lister at Washington, and through our rep
resentative, Mr.. Henry Middleton, at st.
Petersburg to the cabinet of the Gar by the
then Secretary of State, Mr.. John Quincy
Adams. Great Britain having precisely the
same territorial rights and interests in that
quarter which she possesses to-day, took the
same ground as the United States. The
Russian claim was denied upon the ground
that it was contrary to the law of nations
and to the recognized doctrine Of the free
dom of the seas.
In April, 1924, within less than three
years after the question was mooted, Russia
signed a convention with the United States,
and the following year one with Great Bri.
tain, in which the exclusion claim was
abandoned and the right of free navigation
and free fishery fully recognized. Shortly
after President Monroe, in letter to ex.
President Madison, also to be found among
the Madison papers in the State Depart
ment, expressed his great satisfaction at this
triumph of American diplomacy and at the
readiness with which Russia had yielded
the pretensons which Mr.. Blaine is now
seeking to revive. "The claim to the mare
ctausuDa" says President Monroe, sis given
up. England will, of course, have simi-
lar stipulation in favor of the free naviga
ton of the Pacific, 6M soe shall haze the cred
IL Of haosng taking the lead in the affair.""
1t is curious, after the lapse of more than
sixty years, to find another Admin istration
and another Secretary of State trying to
undo the work and stutify the diplomacy
upon which President Monroe and the
American statesmen of his time prded
themselves. 1t is somewhat odd to find this
country, as the assignee of Russia, asserting
against Great Britain claim which, in
1924, our government had the assistance and
support OF Great Britain in inducing Rus.
sia to renounce as being without foundation
in justice or international law.--Bdit0 Sun
The House of Representatives has passed
substitute for the Senate bill in regard to
the power of a State to prevent the sale of
liquor brought within its limits in the orig
nal package. The scope of the Senate bill
was enlarged in the House and its provis-
ions We're made to apply to other articles