The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-01-06
The Behring Sea Matter Comes
to the Front Again.
THE ADMINISTRATIONS POSITION
Defined-The Secretary OF State Talks in
His Usual BuncOmbe Style-COmments
of the London Press.

States can prove the contrary the case is
complete and undeniable. Therefore Blaine
enters into an exhaustive argument based
on Bancrofts histories and maps to show
that Adams and his contemporaries had
distinct understanding that the phrase
"Pacitic ocean" excluded the waters of
Behring sea, then known to all the world
as the sea of Kamaschtka. The secretary
points to the large wealth of the Russian
American company which, he says, would
have been carelessly thrown away by the
Russian nobility in the phrase which
merged Behring sea in the Pacific ocean.
He cites the long years of abstinence from
the seal waters by the adventures of the
people of the United States and Great
Britain as presumption of their lack of
right to enter as stronger evidence of his
correctness.
Blaine cites the protocol of the treaty of
1924 to show Russia's REIMBURSEMENT of
luusdicti9r applied only to territory be-
tween tAe 50th and Goth degrees. Also the
explanatory note from Russia to Adams in
1874 POSITIVELY excepting the Aleutian islands
and country north of 80 degrees, 80 min
utes from concession to the United States
OF the right to fish and trade. OF this note
Secretary Blaine says: 1.-The explanatory
note of the Russian government disproves
and denies in detail the three assertions of
Lord Salisbury. think they are completely
dlsproved by the facts recited in this dis
patch, but the explanatory note is specific
conlEafTction of each one of them. In the
judgement of the President nothing of i'm
fpePtance would be settled by proving that
sf5feat Britain conceded no Jurisdiction to
Russia over the seal fisheries of Behring
sea. 1t might as well be proved that Rus
sla conceded no jurisdiction to England
over the river Thames, by doing nothing
in each case. Everything is conceded. In
the one case is anything asked of the other!
Concession as used here, means simply
acQuiescence in the rightfulness of title and
that IS the only form of concession which
Russia asked of Great Britain, or which
Great Britain gave to Russia.
s'The second offer Of Lord Salisbury to
arbltrate, amounts to simply submission
of the question whether any country has
rlghtto extend its Jurisdiction more than
one marine league from the shore No one
disputes that as rule, but the question is
whether there may not be exceptions
where the enforcement does not interfere
with these highways of commerce which
the necessities and usage of the world
have marked out. Great Britain when she
desired an exception did not stop TO con
slider or regard the inconvenience to which
the commercial world might be subjected
Her exception placed an obstacle in the
highway between continents. The United
States in protecting the seal fisheries will
not Interfere with single sail of COM
merce.n
Further, the secretary says: sThe
United States having the most extended sea
coast OF all the nations of the world, it NAV
be presumed to have paid serious attention
to the laws and usuages which define and
limit maritime Jurisdiction. While Lord
Sallsbury's admonltiOnS are received in
good part by this government, we feel JUS
titled in asking his lordship if the govern
ment of Great Britain has uniformly illus
trated these precepts by example, or
whether she has not established at least
one notable precedent which would Justify
US IN making greater demands upon her
malesty's government touching Behring
sea than either our necessities or our de-
sires have ever suggested!n
The secretary here cites the action of
Great Britain in excluding vessels from
waters within eight leagues of ST. Helena
when Napoleon was confined there, and
again refers to the protection exercised
over the Ceylon pearl fisheries by Great
Britain and says: 81 am directed by the
President to say that On behalf of the
United States he is willing to adopt the
text used in the act of parliament to ex-
clude ships from lowering nearer TO the
iSlduu VI 81. tielena IMAM eight marine
leagues, or he will take the example cited
by Sir George Baden Powell where, by
permission of her majesty's government.
control over part of the ocean six hundred
miles wide is to-day authorized by Austral-
ian law.
"The President will ask the government
OF Great Britain to agree to a distance of
twenty marine leagues within which no
ship shall hover around the islands of ST.
bo S%l,
to the 18th of October of each year. This
will prove an effective mode of preserving
the seal fisheries for the use of the civilized
world, mode which, in view of Great
Britain's assumption of power over the
ocean, she cannot, with consistency, de-
cline.n
The secretary describes the destructive
effects upon seal life of unrestricted seal
ing, and says: "Great Britain has been in
formed, advised and warned again and
again of the evil effects that would flow
from her course OF action, but against tes-
timony that amounts to demonstration she
has preferred to abide by personal repre-
sensations from Ottawa, by reports of
commissioners who examined nothing and
heard nothing, except the testimony of
those engaged in business against which
the United States earnestly protested She
may possibly be convinced Of the damage
If she will send an intelligent commissioner
to Pribyloff islands"
Respecting the British proposition look
ing to arbitration the secretary saws: eft
will mean something tangible in the Presi
dsnt's opinion if Great Britain will consent
to arbitrate the real questions which have
been under discussion between the two
governments for the last four years. II
shall endeavor to state what, in the iudg
ment OF the President, these Issues are:
What excl usive Jurisdiction on the sea
now known as Behring sea, and what exclusive
rights in the seal fisheries of Behrinp did Rus
sla assert and exercise prior and up to the time
OF the accession of Alaska to the United
States?
2-How far were their claims of Jurisdiction
as TO seal fisheries recognized and conceded bv
Great Britain? ~
WAS the body of water known as Behrinr
sea included in the phrase Pacific ocean as
used In the treaty of 1925 between Great Britain
ana Russia: And what rights. if any, in Behrinn
sea were given or conceded to Great Britain nv
said treaty!
Did not all the rights of Russia as TO
jurisdiction and as to the seal fisheries in !
Behring sea east of the water boundary in the
treaty between the United states and Russia of
March ~ 1867. pass unimpaired to the United |
States under that treaty?
5-What are now the rights of the United |
States, as to the fur seal fisheries in the
waters OF Behrlng Sea, outside the ordinary
territorial limits? Whether such rights grew
out OF the cession by Russia of any special
rights OF jurisdiction held by her in such fisher
les, or IN the waters of Behring sea- or out of
the ownership of the breeding islands and hab- |
It's OF seals In resorting thither and raising
their young thereon and going out from the
islands for food ont inf anv lt, AZ, ~ -