Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-05-14
He Explains His Position on the
Behring Sea Question
Again.
Proves that the Rights Of the
United States Cannot be
Questioned.
Great Britain Has Looked at Similar
Questions in the Same
Light.

public. 1t saws in part: THE modifca-
tions which Lord Salisbury suggests in
the questions for arbitration do not wholly
meet the views Of the president; but the
president changes the text in the third
and fifth in such a manner, it is
hoped, as will result in an agreement be-
tween the two governments.
While Lord Salisbury suggests
that different mode of procedure
from that embodied in the sixth question
the president does not understand him &C
tually to object to the question and there
fore assumes that it is agreed.
The six questions now proposed by the
president are:
First-What exclusive jurisdiction in
Behring sea and what exclusive rights in
seal fisheries therein did Russia assert and
exercise up to the time of the Cesslon of
Alaska to the United States.
Second-How far were these claims con-
coded by Great Britain.
Third-Was Behring sea, included in
the phrase Pacific ocean, used in the
treaty of 1926 between Great Britain and
Russia and what rights, if any, in Benr-
ing sea was held and exclusively exercised
by Russia after said treaty.
Fourth-Did not all rights of Russia
pass unimpared to the United States under
the treaty of 1867?
Fifth-Has the United States any right,
and if so, what right of protection CT
property in fur seals frequenting the
islands of the United States in Behring
sea when such seals are found outside the
three mile limit.
Sixth-If a determination Of the forego-
ing questions shall leave the subject in
such a position that the concurrence of
Great Britain is necessary IN prescribing
the regulations for the killing OF fur seal
in any part of the waters of Behring sea
then II Shall be further determined: First
How far, if at all, outside of the ordi-
nary territorial limits is it neces
sary that the United States should exercise
exclusive jurisdiction in order to protect
seal living for the time upon the islands
of the United States and feeding there
from. Second Whether the closed season,
during which killing of seals in the
waters of Behring sea outside of the
ordinary territorial limits shall be pro-
hibited, is necessary to save the seal fish
ing industry so valuable and important to
mankind from deterioration or destruc
ton, and if So Third-What months Or
parts of months should be included In
such season and over what waters it should
extend.
The president does not object to the ad-
ditional question respecting the alleged
damage to English ships, if the condition
can be added that if the United States
shall prevail in arbitration, all seals taken
by Canadian vessels during the period
eiIiLil Lo paid ruI oct the v1dInsiIy pI iUu for
which the skins are sold.
In Lord Salisbury's dispatch of February
q, he makes the declaration that sit IL
now quite clear that the advisors of the
president do not claim Rehring sea as
mare clausum, and, indeed, repudiate that
contention In express terms.
Mr.. Blaine says that L ord Salisbury's
expression is in form to imply that the
United States has been resting its
contention upon the fact that Behring sea
was mare clausum. If that was the in
tention it would have been well for his
lordship to specify wherein the United
States ever made the assertion.
Lard Salisbury complains that did not
deal with certain protests of Lord Lon
dondery and the Duke of Wellington in
1922 In my dispatch of December II,
specially dealt with them; maintained, and
/ think, proved from the text that there
was not single word in those protests
referred, in the language of the Duke of
Wellington, only to the lands extending
along the shores of the Pacific Ocean from
latitude 40 to latitude 60 degrees north.
In Lord Londonderry protest he
alludes to the matters in dispute as espe-
cially connected with the territorial
rights of the Russian crown
on the northwest coast of America
bordering on the Pacific ocean and the
commerce and navigation of his imperial
majesty's subjects In the seas adjacent
thereto. Both protests referred to the
territory south of Alaska peninsula, bord-
ering on the Pacific and geograph-
icaly shut out from Behring sea.
In Lord Salisbury's Judgment the conten-
ton of the United States now rests wholly
upon the ukase of 1921, by the emperor
of Russia. The United States has at no
time rested its argument solely upon the
ground mentioned, and this government
regrets that Lord Salisbury should
have so Inexperienced the
American position as to
limit its basis of right in Behring sea. to
the ukase of 1911. The United States ha
among other grounds insisted. without re-
curing to any of its inherited and supe-
rior rights in Alaska, that this govern
the three mile line III case of proved neces-
sity, as Great Britain possesses.
Two or three instances of
the power which Great Britain
exerci es beyond the three mile line has
already been quoted, but failed thus far to
secure comment or explanation from Lord
Salisbury. Another case can be cited per-
haps still more to the point. In 1889
only two years ago-the British paria-
ment enacted law, the effect of which is
fully shown by map enclosed herewith.
Far outside of the three mile line the par
lament of Great Britain has attempted
to control the body of water situated be-
yond the northeastern section of Scotland,
two thousand seven hundred square miles
in extent and to direct that certain
methods of fishing shall not be used with.
In that great BODY of water under a pre-
scribed penalty. The inhibition is rot
alone against the British subjects, but
against any person"
MIR. Blaine quotes from the parliament
tary act in question and adds: If Great
Britain may thus control an area of two
thousand seven hundred square miles Cf
ocean on the coast of Scotland, why may
not the United States prescribe a space
around the Pribyloff islands in which
similar prohibitions may be enforced?
The government of the United States has
steadily held the reverse of the position
Lord Salisbury lmpntes to it. 1t holds
that the ownership of the islands upon
which seals breed, that the habit of the
seals In regularly resorting thither and
rearing their young thereon, that their
going out from the islands in