[Inclosure 5 in No. 13.]

Messrs. Lynde & Hough to Mr. Folger.

SAN FRANCISCO, February 15, 1882. SIR: You will please pardon us for this seeming intrusion, but the matter in which we now seek your aid and kind assistance is of great import to us.

We now are and have been extensively engaged in the Pacific coast cod fisheries, and, in fact, are among the very few who fifteen years ago started in a small way, believing with energy and fair dealing we could work up an enterprise that would be a benefit to the coast. Our ideas were correct. We have been yearly sending vessels to the coast of Kamtchatka (Sea of Okhotsk) for fish. We never have been molested in Russian waters from catching cod-fish or procuring bait, which are small salmon in the rivers, or filling fresh water for the use of ship, but it appears now there is a law which has never been enforced against foreigners, the same we have recently noted, and which we have been apprised of, and the substance is that foreign vessels must receive an order from the Governor of Siberia, besides must pay a duty of 10 dollars per ton on all fish caught in Russian waters. This decree, if sustained, is ruinous to one of the best and rising industries of the coast, and as we fit our vessels to sail about the 1st May, leaves us but little chance to arrange matters this season save with your kind assistance in the matter. Our business is fishing entirely. We use no trade with natives, having nothing to do with the taking or purchasing of furs. At this time we are placed in a very bad predicament. Trusting that you can relieve us from this embarrassment, and receive an early reply on the subject, we are, &c.

(Signed)

P. S.-Our vessels fish from 10 to 25 miles from shore.

LYNDE & HOUGH.

L. & H.

No. 14.

Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Frelinghuysen.—(Received April 3.)

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

St. Petersburgh, March 14, 1882. SIR: I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a Circular of the Treasury Department of the 30th January last upon the subject of fishing, &c., in the Behring Sea and in the Sea of Okhotsk.

I am able to give the Department some little information upon this subject, derived nearly four years ago from Mr. Charles H. Smith, for many years a resident of Vladivostok, and at one time our Consul or Vice-Consul at that port.

A glance at the Map will show that the Kurile Islands are dotted across the entrance to the sea of Okhotsk the entire distance from Japan on the south to the southernmost cape of Kamtchatka on the north.

In the time when Russia owned the whole of these islands her Representatives in Siberia claimed that the Sea of Okhotsk was a mare clausum, for that Russian jurisdiction extended from island to island, and over 2 marine leagues of intermediate sea from Japan to Kamtchatka.

But about five years ago Russia ceded the southern group of these islands to Japan in return for the half of the Island of Saghalien, which belonged to that Power.

As soon as this was done it became impossible for the Siberian authorities to maintain their claim. My informant was not aware that this claim had ever been seriously made at St. Petersburgh.

The best whaling grounds are found in the bays and inlets of the Sea of Okhotsk. Into these the Russian Government does not permit foreign whalers to enter, upon the ground that the entrance to them, from

headland to headland, is less than 2 marine leagues wide. But while they permit no foreign whalers to penetrate into these bays, they avail themselves of their wealth very little. The whole privilege of whaling in those waters is a monopoly, owned by an unimportant Company, which employs two or three sailing-schooners only, the trying and other laborious work being done at their stations on shore.

19

Referring to my No. 44 of June 1878, I have the honour to add that Baron Stoeckl told me in conversation last winter that we failed to make a Fishing Treaty with Russia in 1868, principally on account of the vested interests of this Company.

Mr. C. H. Smith now resides at Great Falls, N. H., and would be glad, I am sure, to put his information at the service of the Department. I am, &c.

(Signed)

WICKHAM HOFFMAN.

No. 15.

Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Frelinghuysen.—(Received April 13.)

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

St. Petersburgh, March 27, 1882.

SIR: I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 120, with its inclosures, in reference to our Pacific Ocean fisheries. Your despatch reached me yesterday, and to-day I have written to M. de Giers upon the subject, and I propose to call upon him upon his first reception day. In the meantime, and until further information, I do not see that any new orders necessarily affecting our fishermen have been issued by the Russian Government. Messrs. Lynde and Hough have apparently given insufficient attention to the words "Russian waters." These waters are defined in the Notice published by the Imperial ViceConsulate at Yokohama, as follows:

"Fishing, &c., on the Russian coast or islands in the Okhotsk and Behring Seas, or on the north-eastern coast of Asia, or within their seaboundary line."

If I recollect correctly the information given me by Mr. Smith upon this subject, referred to in my No. 44 of June 1878, and in my No. 207 of this month, the cod-banks lie in the open Sea of Okhotsk, many marine leagues off the south-western coast of Kamtchatka. I observe that Messrs. Lynde and Hough state that their vessels fish from 10 to 25 miles from the shore. At that distance in an open sea they cannot be said "to fish upon the coast."

I do not think that Russia claims that the Sea of Okhotsk is a mare clausum, over which she has exclusive jurisdiction. If she does, her claim is not a tenable one since the cession of part of the group of the Kurile Islands to Japan, if it ever were tenable at any time.

I may add that, according to the information given me four years ago, Russia opposes no objections to foreign fishermen landing in desert places on the coast of Kamtchatka, far from the few villages which are found on that coast, for the purposes of catching bait and procuring fresh water; but she does object to all communication between trading and fishing vessels and the inhabitants, alleging that these vessels sell them whiskey, upon which they get drunk, and neglect their fishing, their only means of livelihood, and then, with their wives and children, die of starvation the ensuing winter. WICKHAM HOFFMAN.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

No. 16.

Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Frelinghuysen.-(Received June 6.)

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
St. Petersburgh, May 22, 1882.

SIR: Referring to your No. 120 and to my Nos. 211 and 215, I have the honour to forward to you herewith a translation of a note recently received from M. de Giers upon the subject of hunting, fishing, and trading in the Pacific waters.

I do not see that there is anything in the Regulations referred to that affects our whalers, nor our cod fisheries either, except that when they go ashore to catch 'small fish for bait in the streams, they expose themselves to interruption from the Russian authorities, who, finding them in territorial waters, may accuse them of having taken their fish therein.

I will endeavor to procure and forward you a translation of the Articles of the Code referred to by M. de Giers, that you may have the whole matter before you. This cannot be done, however, under several days.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

WICKHAM HOFFMAN.

[Inclosure in No. 16.-Translation.]

M. de Giers to Mr. Hoffman.

20

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ASIATIC DEPARTMENT,
May 8 (20), 1882.

SIR: Referring to the exchange of communications which has taken place between us on the subject of a Notice published by our Consul at Yokohama relative to fishing, hunting, and to trade in the Russian waters of the Pacific, and in reply to the note which you addressed to me, dated the 15th (27th) March, I am now in a position to give you the following information.

A Notice of the tenour of that annexed to your note of the 15th March was, in fact, published by our Consul at Yokohama, and our Consul-General at San Francisco is also authorized to publish it.

This measure refers only to prohibited industries and to the trade in contraband; the restrictions which it establishes extend strictly to the territorial waters of Russia only. It was required by the numerous abuses proved in late years, and which fell with all their weight on the population of our sea-shore and of our islands, whose only means of support is by fishing and hunting. These abuses inflicted also a marked injury on the interests of the Company to which the Imperial Government had conceded the monopoly of fishing and hunting ("exportation") in islands called the "Commodore" and the "Seals."

Beyond this new Regulation, of which the essential point is the obligation imposed upon captains of vessels who desire to fish and to hunt in the Russian waters of the Pacific to provide themselves at Vladivostok with the permission or licence of the Governor-General of Oriental Siberia, the right of fishing, hunting, and of trade by foreigners in our territorial waters is regulated by Article 560 and those following of Vol. XII, Part II, of the Code of Laws.

Informing you of the preceeding, I have, &c.

(Signed)

GIERS.

No. 17.

Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Frelinghuysen.—(Received July 3.)

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

St. Petersburgh, June 14, 1882.

SIR: Referring to my No. 228, I have the honour to forward to you herewith a translation of a note and inclosure received yesterday from M. de Giers upon the subject of fishing and hunting in the Russian Pacific waters. As far as I am at present informed, the Department has now before it the whole legislation of Russia upon the subject.

I am, &c.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ASIATIC DEPARTMENT,
June 1 (13) 1882.

SIR: In consequence of the note which you addressed to me on the 13th (25th) May, relative to fishing and hunting in our Pacific waters, and in which you expressed the desire to have a translation of the Articles of our Code which govern the matter, I have the honour to transmit to you here with a translation of Articles 560, &c., of the Code, Vol. XII, Part II.

Receive, &c.

GIERS.

[Inclosure 2 in No. 17.-Translation.]

Articles 560, 561, 562, 565, and 571 of the Russian Code, Vol. XII, Part II.

Article 560. The maritime waters, even when they wash the shores where there is a permanent population, cannot be the subject of private possession; they are open to the use of one and all.

Art. 561. No exception will be made to this general rule, except under the form of special privileges granted for the right of fishing in certain fixed localities and during limited periods.

Art. 562. The above Regulation regarding the right of fishing and analogous occupations on the seas extends equally to all lakes which do not belong to private properties.

Art. 565. No restriction shall be established as regards the apparatus (engines) employed for fishing and for analogous occupations in the high seas, and it shall be permitted to every one to use for this purpose such apparatus as he shall judge to be best according to the circumstances of the locality.

Art. 571. Ships in quarantine are not permitted to fish. The same prohibition extends in general to all persons in those localities where ships are lying undergoing quarantine.

Mr. Lothrop to Mr. Bayard.-(Received March 7.)

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, St. Petersburgh, February 17, 1887. SIR: In compliance with the instructions of your despatch No. 65 of the 4th December last, I addressed a note on the 22nd of December to the Imperial Minister for Foreign Affairs, asking for the facts and grounds on which the American schooner "Henrietta" was seized and confiscated off East Cape, in Behring Straits, on the 24th August last.

On the 21st January last I received a reply, a translation of which I inclose herewith, stating that the "Henrietta" was confiscated by the Judgment of a Commission sitting on board the Imperial corvette "Kreysser," for the offence of illicit trading on the Russian coast.

On the 24th January I had a personal interview with General Vlangaly, the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which I asked him how the Commission that sat on board the corvette was constituted. He informed me that it was composed of certain officers of the corvette, acting under the orders of the Government of Eastern Siberia, within whose general jurisdiction such matters were vested.

I also called his attention to the fact that his note to me failed to specify in what the "illicit commerce" consisted, and asked him for further information. He replied that he was not then able to give me the desired information, but said an answer in respect to the seizure and condemnation of the American schooner "Eliza" was in preparation, and would be sent to me in a few days, and he thought that perhaps I might thereby receive the information sought.

On the 1st February I received the promised communication respecting the "Eliza," a copy of which will accompany the despatch which will immediately follow the present one.

It will be seen that the seizure and condemnation of the schooners rest on the provisions of an administrative Order ("d'une disposition administrative") prohibiting, after the first of the year 1882, all trading, hunting, and fishing on the Russian Pacific coasts without special licence from the Governor-General.

It is claimed that very extensive publicity of this Regulation was given in 1881-83 through the newspapers of Yokohama, in the Russian Consulates of the Pacific, and at the American custom-houses.

Upon the receipt of this last note I at once, for greater celerity, wrote to General Vlangaly asking him for a copy of the Trading Regulation or Order.

I also asked if I was right in my understanding that the Commission was composed of the officers of the vessel that made the capture.

I supposed this last note would be answered at once, but as it has not been, I have concluded not to wait any longer before reporting the case to you.

The feature that strikes me as very peculiar in these cases is the fact that the captors are also the judges of their own acts. The Commission seems to sit at once at the place of capture, and the evidence on which it acts would seem to be that which the captors derive from their own observation on the spot. It is, perhaps, a fundamental and equitable maxim of jurisprudence that no one can be a judge of his own cause, and it will probably be worthy of consideration how far the decisions of a Tribunal so constituted can be considered as valid. I am, &c.

[Inclosure in No. 18.-Translation.]

General Vlangaly to Mr. Lothrop.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ASIATIC DEPARTMENT,

January 8 (20), 1887.

MR. ENVOY: In consequence of the note addressed by you to me on the 10th (22nd) December, I hasten to ask information of the Maritime Province, by telegraph, in regard to the seizure of the Henrietta."