MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether there is any submission to the Behring Sea Arbitrators, now sitting in Paris, of any question affecting any alleged rights of Russia to interfere with British sealers on the high seas, to the westward of the imaginary line assumed to be drawn across the Behring Sea by the Russo-American Treaty of 1867; whether, if there be no such submission, the result of the Arbitration will not leave that part of the Behring Sea entirely unaffected and any alleged rights therein of Russia entirely untouched; whether it is intended by Her Majesty's Government to propose or to submit to another Arbitration on the matters left in question between England and Russia as to this part of the sea; and whether Her Majesty's Government will now lay before the House the information in its possession relative to the forcible seizure by Russian cruisers of British vessels on the high seas in January last?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir E. GREY,) Northumberland, BerwickThe questions submitted to the Arbitrators, as will be seen by the Treaty, deal only with rights claimed by the 1040 United States. The Russian Government have not made any such claim of right as the hon. Member seems to suppose, and it has not been necessary to contemplate the question of another Arbitration. It is not desirable to publish the correspondence respecting the seizures of British vessels by Russian cruisers until the reply of the Russian Government and the statement of their officers on the subject is received.
MR. GIBSON BOWLESDo I understand the hon. Baronet to say the Russian Government have made no claim to any right in the Behring Sea?
§ SIR E. GREYThe Russian Government have made no claim.