The record-union., 1891-03-11
Probability of an Early Settlement
of the VeXed Question.
THE NEGOTIATIONS TAKE A FAVOR
ABLE TURN.
Secretary Blaine Makes Public a
Lengthy communication on the
Subject Addressed to the British
Minister at Washington from Lord
Salisbury.
Special to the REcoRD-UNIoN.

Special to the RECoRD-UNIoN.
WASHINGTON, March 1O.-The Behring
Sea negotiations have taken favorable
turn, and the Governments of the United
States and Great Britain appear to have
at last reached basis upon which to
settle their difficulties.
A communication from Lord Salisbury
to Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British
Minister here, under date of February
18th, was made public by Secretary
Blaine tonight. In it Lord Salisbury
says the dispatch of Mr.. Blaine under
date of the 18th of December last has been
carefully considered.
cit is now clear" he adds, 'that the
advisers of the President do not claim
Behring Sea as mare cia1tseDl, and, in
deed, that they repudiate that contention
in express terms. Nor do they rely as a
justification for the seizure of the British
British ships in the open sea upon the
contention that the interests of seal fish
cries give the United States Government
any right for that purpose which, accord
ing to international law, it would not
otherwise possess. Whatever importance
they attach TO the preservation OF the fur
a subject deserving of the most serious
solicitude, they do not conceive that it
confers upon any maritime powers rights
over an open ocean which that power
could not assert on other grounds.
1.-THE claim of the United States to pre-
vent the exercise of seal fishing by other
nations in Behring Sea rests now eXclu-
sively upon the interest which, by pur-
chase, they possess in the ukase issued by
Emperor Alexander l., in the year IS2l,
which prohibits foreign vessels from APP
preaching within 100 Italian miles of the
coast and islands then belonging to Rus
sia in Behring Sea. 1t is not, as / under
stand, contended that the Russian Gov
ernment at the time of the issue of this
ukase possessed any inherent right to en-
force such prohibition, or acquired by the
act of issuing ii any claims over the open
sea beyond the territorial limit of three
miles which they would not otherwise
have possessed.
''But, it is said, this proposition worth
less in itself, acquired validity and force
against the British Government, because
that Government can be shown to have
accepted its provisions.
''Our contention is, that not only can ii
not be shown that the Government OF
Great Britain, at any time since 1921, has
admitted the soundness Of the pretension
put forward by that ukase, but that it can
be shown that it has categorically denied
it on more than one occasion.''
To sustain this contention, Lord Sails
bury quotes from a letter January, 1922, J
from Lord Londonderry to Count Lieven,
the Russian Ambassador in London, and
also from note by the Duke of Yelling
ton to Count Nesselrode October 1872, J
refusing to admit Russia's claim.
Continuing, Lord Salisbury says: 'Mr.
Blaine does not deal with these protests.
but confines himself mainly to consider
alton of the treaties subsequently made
between Great Britain and Russia and
America and Russia in 1925, and especi-
ally of that between Russia and Great
Britain. This treaty does not contain a
word to signify the acquiesceuce of Great
Britain in the claim recently put forward
by Russia to control the waters of the sea
for 100 miles from her coast.
81 understand Mr.. Blaine's argument
to be that if Great Britain intended to
protest against the claim of Russia to ex-
clude ships for 100 miles from her coast
in Behring Sea, she would have taken
this opportunity of doing so; but that in
confining herself to stipulations in favor
of full liberty of navigation and fishing
in any part of the ocean commonly called
the Pacific Ocean, she, by implication.
renounced any claim that could arise out
of the same set of circumstances in regard
to any sea that was not part of the Pacific
Ocean-and then Mr.. Blaine goes on to
contend that the phrase, Pacific Ocean,
did not, and does not, include Behring
Sea. Even if this latter con-
tention were correct, / should
earnestly demur to the conclusion
that our inherent right to free passage and
fishing over the vast extent of ocean
could be effectively renounced by mere
reicence or omission. But I am not
prepared to admit the justice of Mr.
Blaines contention that the words pa
n, ~
Mr.. Blaine adduces a long list of maps in
which designation distinct from that o1
Pacific Ocean is given to Behring Sea
either 'Behring Sea- or Sea of KAN
schatka' or Sea of Anadir' The argu-
ment will hardly have any force unless
it is applicable with equal truth to all
other oceans of the world . 8 80
Lord Salisbury says the determination
of this point is most satisfactorily ascer.
tanned by consulting books of reference
of which he appends a list of some thirty
of various dates from 1895 downwardS
and printed in various countries, which
combined to show that in common par
lance the words '1Pacific Ocean, do in.
clude Behring Sea. If then, in ordinary
language, Pacific Ocean is used as phrase
including the whole sea from Behrine
Straits to the Antarctic circle, it follows
that the first article of the treaty of 1926
did secure to Great Britain in the fullest
IHtiiiltI the lTeeuODl OF llaN1gat1On ana
fishing in Behring Sea. In that case nc
inference, however indirect or circuitous.
can be drawn from any omission in the
language of that instrument to show that
Great Britain acquiesced in the usurpa-
ton which the ukase of 1921 attempted
"Other documents have quoted suffi-
ciently establish the fact that She not only
did not acquiesce in it, but repudiated il
more than once in plain and unequivocal
terms. And what right Russia did not
herself possess she was not able to trans
NIT to the United States.
Her Majesty's Government has. in
view OF these considerations, no doubt
whatever that British subjects enjoy the
same rights in Behring Sea which be-
longs to them in every other portion ot
the open ocean.
But it is, nevertheless. of sincere salts
faction that the President is willing to
refer TO arbitration what he conceives to
be matters which have been under dis
cussion by the two Governments for the
last four years.
In regard to the questions as proposed
by Mr.. Blaine, / should say as to the first
and second, that no objection will be en-
forced by her Aiajesty's Government.
They are as follows:
-. What exclusive jurisdiction in the
sea known as Behring Sea. and what ex-
elusive rights in the seal fisheries therein
did Russia assert and exercise prior and