Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1889 — AMERICAN TITLE TO BEHRING. [ARTICLE]

AMERICAN TITLE TO BEHRING.

That of Russia Wm Never Questioned, and It Was Ceded to the United Statqp. Congressman Charles N. Felton, of San Francisco, has written an article treating at conjprerable length of the question of the rights and title of the United States in Behring sea. Mr. Felton was a member of the conference committee between the Senate and the House, in the last Congress, which passed the bill amendatory of the laws regulating fur-seal fisheries in Behring sea The writer first cites the well known facts on which Russia’s title to the Behring sea was based, and gives the history of Russia’s Control of Alaska and the Behring sea to the date of the cession of the same to the United States, is 1868. Russia ceded to the United States all that part of Behring sea east of a given line running nearly northeast and southwest through this sea, and retained the title to and control over that part of Behring sea lying west of the said line. The writer then says: “It is a matter of history that Russia, from her discovery of Behring sea down to the cession to the United States, controlled the navigation of its waters and the taking of its marine life. To this end her navy patrolled it, and in pursuance of her laws has taken, confiscated and burned marauding vessels. She has since pursued, and is now pursuing the same policy in her part of the Behing sea.” Referring to the fact that the United States and Great Britain entered protests with Russia against certain manifestoes issued by that government in 1821, claiming certain rights over north Pacific waters, Mr. Felton shows that these protests evidently had reference to waters south of Behring sea. He then adds: “In all protests, correspondence, negotiations and treaties there is no allusion to Behring sea, Alutian islands, or to any region of country or sea, within 1,000 miles of eastern border, hence the sovereignty asserted and maintained by Russia over that sea from its discovery to its partition and cession to the United States, a period of overone hundred and forty years, has never been officially questioned or denied; and, again, had it been understood that the waters of Behring sea and its marine life were free to fishermen of all nations, including ours, there could have been no incentive on the part of our government for its purchase.’! Whatever title Russia had at the date of its transfer to the United States must be conceded to our government until it is established that Russia had no title to the same, which the writer apprehends can not be successfully accomplished.